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Marked sex differences on a fine motor skill task disappear when finger size is used as covariate.

1990; American Psychological Association; Volume: 75; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1037/0021-9010.75.1.87

1939-1854

Michael Peters, Philip Servos, Russell Day,

Children's Physical and Motor Development

Purdue Pegboard performance of 16 male and 25 female right-handed college students were compared, and results were replicated with 25 male and 28 female subjects. In agreement with the literature, women performed significantly better than men. When measures of index finger and thumb thickness were used as covariate, all significant sex differences in performance disappeared. Negative correlations between performance and finger size were observed in both sexes. Sex differences in fine manual dexterity tasks may therefore be confounded by sex differences in finger size.