Water-level task

The water-level task is an experiment in developmental and cognitive psychology[1][2][3][4][5] developed by Jean Piaget.[6][7]

The experiment attempts to assess the subject's reasoning ability in spatial relations. To do so the subject is shown pictures depicting various shaped bottles with a water level marked, then shown pictures of the bottles tilted on different angles without the level marked, and the subject is asked to mark where the water level would be.

Sex differences in performance

The water level task has been of interest to psychologists due to puzzling sex differences in performance of the task. Multiple studies have indicated that female participants fail the task at a significantly higher rate than male participants.[8]

References

Michael Sabel Phd. Scottsdale University

  1. "The Water-Level Task: An Intriguing Puzzle", Ross Vasta and Lynn S. Liben, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 5, No. 6 (Dec 1996), pp 171-177; JSTOR subscription
  2. "Sex-typing and spatial ability: The association between masculinity and success on piaget's water-level task", doi:10.1007/BF00287356
  3. "Sex differences on Piaget's water-level task: Spatial ability incognito", Eva Geiringer and Janet Hyde, Perceptual and Motor Skills Vol 42(3, Pt 2), Jun 1976, pp. 1323-1328
  4. "Individual differences in water-level task performance: A component-skills analysis", doi:10.1016/0273-2297(88)90007-X
  5. "The Piagetian water-level task: Looking beneath the surface", Lynn S Liben Annals of child development, Vol. 8, pp. 81-143
  6. The Early Growth of Logic in the Child, Barbel Inhelder & Jean Piaget
  7. "Can Spatial Training Erase the Gender Differences on the Water-Level Task?" doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1996.tb00321.x
  8. Halpern, Diane F. (2012). Sex differences in cognitive abilities (4th ed.). New York: Psychology Press. pp. 130–132. ISBN 1848729413.
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