Abstract
This paper describes a study designed to provide an extensive evaluation of the potential relationship between the age of sexual maturation and adult spatial ability. Data from two previous studies were combined to provide information on reasonably large samples of adult men (n = 133) and adult women (n = 116). Variables that represented the age of sexual maturation and scores on measures that span the Spatial Orientation ability factor were used in this reanalysis. The relationship between maturational timing and performance on the measures of spatial ability was examined from three perspectives: (1) correlations between indexes of maturational timing and the spatial measures, (2) correlations between variables derived from a signal-detection analysis of performance on the spatial measures and indexes of pubertal timing, and (3) a comparison of spatial ability for groups extreme in pubertal timing. In all, no consistent relationship between the age of sexual maturation and performance on the spatial orientation measures was found. Implications for the long-term relationship between maturational timing and individual differences in spatial ability are discussed.
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This research was partially supported by grants from the Graduate Division of the University of Missouri at Rolla, the UMR-Alumni Association, and AFOSR-88-0239 to the first author. The second author was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric genetics, NIMH-MH146201-12. We would like to thank Barbara Elliott-Miller, Dawn Elmore, Mona I. Brown, and Lynn Eisele for their assistance with data collection and collation.
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Geary, D.C., Gilger, J.W. Age of sexual maturation and adult spatial ability. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 27, 241–244 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334596
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03334596