The t-test value for the linguistic test is 1. This result indicate that only 2% of the males" and females" performance was due to chance. As well as that, the t-test value for the numerical test is 2.28, which is more than he value of 0.001level of significance (1.775). This indicates that only 0.1% of the participants performance was due to chance.
Furthermore, the mean for the two tasks support the experimental hypothesis. Females" mean score for the linguistic tasks was 13 words compared with 11 words for the males, while the males" mean time for the numerical tasks was 112.1 seconds, compared with 156.7 seconds for the females, which indicated that males were faster in the numerical task than females. .
In both test the experimental hypothesis was accepted, which suggest that females perform better than males in the linguistic tasks and males perform better than females in the numerical tasks.
Relationship to background research.
The results obtained form this research support research that was done before, such as that carried out by Coates and Hartup, which concluded that females were superior to males in linguistic skills. Another research, which was carried out by McGuiness and Pribram supports my results too as they reported that males rated higher on spatial tests than females.
Limitations of the Research and modifications made if repeated.
Both the t-test results and the mean values for the numerical and the linguistic tests support the experimental hypothesis strongly. However, any investigation may contain some limitations and confounding variables, which may make the results unreliable.
Firstly, although the investigation was a controlled experiment, and the experimenter controlled the independent variable, the situation could have been very artificial and therefore lacks ecological validity. The tests that were used were unlikely to give an accurate picture of the males" and females" abilities numerically and linguistically.
