Gender difference in horizontality performance before and after training

To investigate why some individuals, especially females, fail Piaget's horizontality task, the author administered Piaget's horizontality task, the rod and frame field-dependence task, Bem's Sex Role Inventory, and a history of spatial activities questionnaire to 122 undergraduates. Individuals who failed the horizontality task were trained on this task, and after 1 month all participants were administered a horizontality posttest. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that field dependence was related significantly to both pretest and posttest scores. Sex and masculine sex role concept were related to pretest but not to posttest scores. The implications of these findings for group differences in horizontality performance are discussed.