College Women with Differential Linguistic-Quantitative Ability Patterns: Performance on Trail Making Tests

Abstract

A between-groups design was used to study the performance on Trail Making A and Trail Making B for two groups of 14 college women equated on CEEB SAT scores but showing at least a 150-point discrepancy between the Verbal and Mathematics scores. On the simple conceptual tracking task, A, the hypothesized chance difference between subjects with Linguistic (VAT > MAT) and Quantitative (MAT > VAT) ability patterns was confirmed. The second hypothesis was not confirmed; difference scores (Trail Making B — A) were not significantly smaller for Quantitative than Linguistic subjects. Although these scores obtained for search time in seconds did not reach the conventional level of significance, a trend in the hypothesized direction suggested that the Quantitative subjects performed faster on the complex conceptual tracking task, B. To understand the theoretical implications, it was recommended that future studies include a wider array of complex cognitive tasks.