Abstract
Nash (1979) argued that people tend to perform better on cognitive tasks when their gender-related self-concept is consistent with the stereotyping of the tasks. In order to evaluate Nash's hypothesis, participants were administered the S&M Mental Rotation Task, the Controlled Word Association Test, and the Bem (1974) Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). In men gender role orientation was significantly related to performance on the verbal task, with the critical factor being androgyny. When femininity and masculinity were assessed individually, femininity was found to be significantly related to the verbal task in men only. In women there was no significant variability across the gender role types in relation to performance on either task. These findings suggest that the importance of gender is dependent on the task and participants' sex. Nash's hypothesis was not supported for the mental rotation task.
Similar content being viewed by others
references
Agnew, J., Bolla-Wilson, K., Kawas, C. H., & Bleecker, M. L. (1988). Purdue Pegboard age and sex norms for people 40 years old and older. Developmental Neuropsychology, 4, 29-35.
Alain, M. (1987). A French version of the Bem Sex-role Inventory. Psychological Reports, 61, 673-674.
Archer, J. (1987). Beyond sex differences: Comments on Borrill and Reid. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 40, 88-90.
Baucom, D. H., Besch P. K., & Callahan, S. (1985). Relation between testosterone concentration, sex-role identity, and personality among females. Journal of Personality and social Psychology, 48, 1218-1226.
Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 155-162.
Bem, S. L., & Lewis, S. A. (1975). Sex role adaptability: One consequence of psychological androgyny. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 634-643.
Berenbaum, S. A., & Hines, M. (1992). Early androgens are related to childhood sex-typed toy preferences. Psychological Science, 3, 203-206.
Bernard, M. E., Boyle, G. J., & Jackling, I. (1990). Sex-role identity and mental ability. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 213-217.
Boldizar, J. P. (1991). Assessing sex typing and androgyny in children: The Children's Sex Role Inventory. Developmental Psychology, 27, 505-515.
Brosnan M. J. (1998). Spatial ability in children's play with Lego blocks. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 87, 19-28.
Caplan, P. J., MacPherson, G. M., & Tobin, P. (1985). Do sex-related differences in spatial abilities exist? American Psychologist, 40, 786-799.
Casey, M. B., & Nuttall, R. L. (1990). Differences in feminine and masculine characteristics in women as a function of handedness: Support for the Geschwind/Galaburda theory of brain organization. Neuropsychologia, 28, 749-754.
Chung, Y. B. (1996). The construct validity of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory for heterosexual and gay men. Journal of Homosexuality, 30, 87-97
Dikmen, S. S., Heaton, R. K., Grant, I., & Temkin, N. R. (1999). Test-retest reliability and practice effects of Expanded Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 5, 346-356.
Eals, M., & Silverman, I. (1994). The hunter-gatherer theory of spatial sex differences: Proximate factors mediating the female advantage in recall of object arrays. Ethology and Sociobiology, 15, 95-105.
Ekstrom, R. B., French, J. W., & Harmon, H. H. (1976). Manual for Kit of Factor-Referenced Cognitive Tests. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
Fontayne, P., Sarrazin, P., & Famose, J. P. (2000). The Bem Sex-Role inventory: Validation of a short version for French teenagers. European Review of Applied Psychology, 50, 405-416.
Galea, L. A., & Kimura, D. (1993). Sex differences in route-learning. Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 53-65.
Hall, J. A., & Halberstadt, A. G. (1980). Masculinity and femininity in children: Development of the Children's Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Developmental Psychology, 16, 270-280.
Halpern, D. F. (1992). Sex differences in cognitive abilities (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hamilton, C. J. (1995). Beyond sex differences in visuo-spatial processing: The impact of gender trait possession. British Journal of Psychology, 86, 1-20.
Herman, J. F., Kail, R. V. & Siegel, A. W. (1979). Cognitive maps of a college campus: A new look at freshman orientation. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 13, 183-186.
Holt, C. L., & Ellis, J. B. (1998). Assessing the current validity of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Sex Roles, 39, 929-941.
Huston, A. C. (1983). Sex-typing. In E. M. Hetherington (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (pp. 387-467). New York: Wiley.
James, T. W., & Kimura, D. (1997). Sex differences in remembering the locations of objects in an array: Location-shifts versus location-exchanges. Evolution and Human Behavior, 18, 155-163.
Kelly, S. M. (1998). A comparative study of attitudes toward men, sex role attitudes, and relationship satisfaction with men of adult women. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 59(2-B), 0904.
Kimura, D. (1999). Sex and cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kohlberg, L. (1966). Moral education in the schools: A developmental view. School Review, 74 (1), 1-30.
Laurella, V. B. (1997). Gender trait differences and nurse caring. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 57(7-B), 4299.
MacLusky, N. J., & McEwen, B. S. (1980). Progestin receptors in the developing rat brain and pituitary. Brain Research, 189, 262-268.
Mathiowetz, V., Rogers, S. L., Dowe-Keval, M., Donahoe, L., & Rennells, C. (1986). The Purdue Pegboard: Norms for 14-to 19-year-olds. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 40, 174-179.
McEwen, B. S. (1981). Neural gonadal steroid actions. Science, 211, 1303-1311.
McEwen, B. S., Davis, P. G., Parsons, B., & Pfaff, D. W. (1979). The brain as target for steroid hormone action. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 2, 65-112.
McKeever, W. F. (1986). The influences of handedness, sex, familial sinistrality and androgyny on language laterality, verbal ability, and spatial ability. Cortex, 22, 521-537.
Miller, L. K., & Santoni, V. (1986). Sex differences in spatial abilities: Strategic and experiential correlates. Acta Psychologica, 62, 225-235.
Moore, S. M. (1985). The Children's Sex-role Test. Psychological Reports, 57, 586.
Nash, S. C. (1979). Sex role as a mediator of intellectual functioning. In M. A. Wittig & A. C. Petersen (Eds.), Sex-related differences in cognitive functioning: Developmental Issues (pp. 263-302). New York: Academic Press.
Newcombe, N., & Dubas, J. S. (1992). A longitudinal study of predictors of spatial ability in adolescent females. Child Development, 63, 37-46.
Nicholls, M. E. R., & Forbes, S. (1996). Handedness and its association with gender-related psychological and physiological characteristics. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 18, 905-910.
Nyborg, H. (1988). Change at puberty in spatioperceptual strategy on the rod-and-frame test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 67, 129-130.
Pearcey, S. M., Docherty, K. J., & Dabbs, J. M., Jr. (1996). Testosterone and sex role identification in lesbian couples. Physiology and Behavior, 60, 1033-1035.
Phillips, R. (1979). Phillips S and M Test, Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson.
Qubeck, W. J. (1997). Mean differences among subcomponents of Vandenberg's Mental Rotation Test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 323-332.
Rao, S., Gupta, G. R., & Murthy, V. N. (1982) B.S.R.I. (A): An Indian adaptation of the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Personality Study and Group Behavior, 2, 1-10.
Resnick, S. M., Berenbaum, S. A., Gottesman, I. I., & Bouchard, T. J. (1986). Early hormonal influences on cognitive functioning in congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Developmental Psychology, 22, 191-198.
Richardson, J. T. E. (1994). Gender differences in mental rotation. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 78, 435-448.
Rowland, R. (1977). The Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Australian Psychologist, 12, 83-88.
Ruble, T. L. (1983). Sex stereotypes: Issues of change in the 1970s. Sex Roles, 9, 397-402.
Sands, K. A. (1998). Nonverbal fluency: A neuropsychometric investigation. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 58(8-B), 4470.
Schneider-Dueker, M., & Kohler, A. (1988). Die Erfassung von Geschlechtsrollen: Ergebnisse zur deutschen Neukonstruktion des Bem Sex-Role Inventory [Assessment of sex roles: Results of a German version of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory]. Diagnostica, 34, 256-270.
Serbin, L. A., & Connor, J. M. (1979). Sex-typing of children's play preferences and patterns of cognitive performance. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 134, 315-316.
Shepard, R. N., & Metzler, J. (1971). Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects. Science, 171, 701-703.
Siegel-Hinson, R. I., & McKeever, W. F. (2002). Hemispheric specialisation, spatial activity experience, and sex differences on tests of mental rotation ability. Laterality, 7, 59-74.
Signorella, M. L., & Jamison, W. (1986). Masculinity, femininity, androgyny, and cognitive performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 207-228.
Signorella, M. L., & Vegega, M. E. (1984). A note on gender stereotyping of research topics. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10, 107-109.
Tracy, D. M. (1987), Toys, spatial ability, and science and mathematics achievement: Are they related? Sex Roles, 17, 115-138.
Vandenberg, S. G., & Kuse, A. R. (1978). Mental rotations: A group test of three-dimensional spatial visualization. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 47, 599-604.
Van Wijk, C. M. T. G., & Kolk, A. M. (1996). Psychometric evaluation of symptom perception related measures. Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 55-70.
Weiss, R. W., & Russakoff, S. (1978). The sex role identity of male drug abusers. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 34, 1010-1013.
Wilcox, C., & Francis, L. J. (1997). Beyond gender stereotyping: Examining the validity of the BEM Sex-Role Inventory among 16-to 19-year old females in England. Personality and Individual Differences, 23, 9-13.
Yanico, B. J. (1985). BSRI scores: Stability over four years for college women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 9, 277-283.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ritter, D. Gender Role Orientation and Performance on Stereotypically Feminine and Masculine Cognitive Tasks. Sex Roles 50, 583–591 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000023077.91248.f7
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SERS.0000023077.91248.f7