This study was designed (a) to examine whether female and male adolescents in the United States, Japan, and China differ significantly in their scores on measures of perception and reasoning, and (b) to determine whether there are similar factor structures of perception and reasoning aptitudes among these groups. A multiple aptitude test battery consisting of six tests (three designed to measure perception and three to measure reasoning) was administered to 854 eighth- and ninth-grade students from the three nations. Analysis of variance and confirmatory factor analysis of factorial invariance models were conducted to explore similarities and differences in means andfactor structures based on country and gender. Although some differences in the mean performance of adolescents from the three nations were noted on perception and reasoning tasks, there was remarkable similarity in the factorial composition ofperformance underlying tests ofperception and reasoning ability. The obtained findings are discussed in light of gender and cultural differences of adolescents from three countries.
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