Sex Differences in Cognitive Performance on Piaget-Like Tasks: A Meta-Analysis of Findings

A meta-analysis of findings from 70 American and foreign studies comparing school-aged boys' and girls' performances during 1965-81 on Piaget-like tests of cognitive functioning was conducted. The results showed a small but rather consistent sex difference in favor of males. With a slight superiority of girls in classification and seriation, boys slightly but consistently outperformed girls in the cognitive operations such as conservation, spatial visualization, proportional reasoning, disembedding, and field articulation. The overall magnitude of effect size, however, was small than that which is generally implied (ES = .32). The means for boys and girls are actually less than half a standard deviation apart. The analyses of variance and regression analyses yielded the following independent variables as significant in explaining the variance in the value of effect size: cognitive domain, response mode, region of country, sample selection, and type of community. Year of publication, type of task and task characteristics in combination with sample selection and sample characteristics explained only 31% of the variance. Problems and concerns related to methodological quality of the synthesized studies are discussed, and some practical implications are offered.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Tohidi, Nayereh Esfahlani

• Education, Educational Psychology

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8303006

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/68837