Marlin L. Languis’s research while affiliated with The Ohio State University and other places

Contemporary concern for providing equality of opportunity for both women and men is not only appropriate, it is long overdue. Stereotyped and biased conceptions of the cognitive capacities of women restrict the access of females to many areas of personal, career, and professional development. Sex stereotyping also limits the range of opportunity for males in some areas, although these restrictions are not often emphasized. In the final analysis, both women and men profit from a wide range of opportunity.

38 right-handed children in sixth grade (17 boys and 21 girls) were administered the WISC Block Design to reflect activity of the right hemisphere of the brain and two versions (verbal and nonverbal) of the Rod-and-frame Test, a measure of field dependence/independence. The Pearson product-moment correlations showed a significant negative correlation between the traditional verbal administration of the Rod-and-frame Test and the WISC Block Design only for the 17 boys. The nonverbal procedure used to administer the Rod-and-frame Test showed a significant negative correlation with the WISC Block Design for both boys and girls. These results were interpreted to reflect a right hemisphere processing for the nonverbal Rod-and-frame Test and a possible sex bias in the traditional verbal administration of the Rod-and-frame Test which might inhibit girls' performance.

79 kindergarten and sixth grade, male and female, right-handed subjects were administered two tasks which infer left-hemisphere processing (WISC Digit Span and PMA Verbal Meaning) and two tasks which infer right-hemisphere processing (WISC Block Design and PMA Spatial Relations) and the Rod-and-Frame Test, a measure of field dependence/independence. A significant grade level increase for all of the tests except for the PMA Spatial Relations Test was noted. The decrease on the PMA Spatial Relations Test was significant for female subjects. Sixth grade males were significantly superior to sixth grade females on the constructive, visuo-spatial task (WISC Block Design Test). There were no other significant sex differences when separating out age level differences. Results are interpreted to suggest less lateralization for females and for males earlier, greater right-hemisphere lateralization for spatial tasks with three-dimensional constructive components.