The role of instructions in the variability of sex-related differences in multiple-choice tests

• Published in: Personality and individual differences Vol. 27; no. 6; pp. 1067 - 1077
• Main Authors: Prieto, Gerardo, Delgado, Ana R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-12-1999; Elsevier
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gender differences; Guessing; Human sex differences; Influence; Instructions; Methodology. Experimentation; Multiple choice questionnaires; Multiple choice testing method; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometrics. Statistics. Methodology; Responses; Scoring testing; Verbal aptitude; Visuospatial aptitude; Verbal aptitude; Scoring testing; Human sex differences; Guessing; Visuospatial aptitude; Multiple choice testing method; Human; Verbal ability; Research worker; Attitude; Scientific research; Sex; Spatial ability; Cognitive bias; Information interpretation
• ISSN: 0191-8869; 1873-3549
• DOI: 10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00049-5

When both experts and lay people interpret data on sex-related differences, they usually forget that the instruments for data collection might be provoking such differences. This experiment, carried out on 240 participants, focused on the effects of four instruction/scoring conditions on sex effect size in two computerized tests — vocabulary and mental rotation, for which sex-related differences had been shown to be, respectively, small (favoring females) and large (favoring males). Given the caution which seems to characterize female performance, our general hypothesis predicted that, under instructions encouraging guessing, effect sizes favoring males would augment and effect sizes favoring females would diminish. The opposite results were expected under instructions discouraging guessing. Some supporting evidence was found.