Women's deficiency in water-level representation: present in visual conditions yet absent in haptic contexts

The present experiment studied horizontality representation among men and women performing the water-level task either in visual conditions (the subjects saw outlines of tilted containers in which they respectively drew or set the water line) or in partially and totally haptic conditions (respectively, the subjects both saw and felt or merely felt the contours of the containers cut out of metal plates, and positioned a rod on the underside of the plates to indicate the water line). It was expected that, as the visual components of the setting were replaced by haptic ones, a reduction of the typical gender difference in proficiency would ensue. It was found that men surpassed women under visual conditions, whereas both genders were equivalent in haptic conditions. There were no gender or condition differences in a control task in which a line had to be placed horizontally in tilted containers. Forced reliance on proprioceptive cues among both men and women under the totally haptic condition was contrasted with the critical role played in visual conditions by visual references; those used by men were correct, whereas the ones used by women were incorrect.