ABSTRACT
Women with Turner syndrome (TS) typically encounter severe difficulties when asked to solve various spatial ability tasks. This chapter illustrates some aspects of the dilemma, and possible solutions proposed. It provides a detailed examination of the spatio-perceptual strategies used by TS women in the Rod-and-Frame Test (RFT), a measure of field dependence-independence. The chapter discusses specific hormonal factors that may explain not only the spatio-perceptual deficits exhibited by TS women in the RFT, but also a number of other phenomena concerning sex-related variations in spatial skills. Age differences in the spatio-perceptual strategies of TS women are compared to those of unaffected schoolgirls. Because the traditional unsigned deviation method of scoring the RFT confounds the variables, it easily leads to an inadequate understanding of the stimulus situation and to ambiguity in the basic concept of field independence-dependence. C. Netley conjectured that the cerebral hemispheres of TS women are bilaterally organized more than usual for both verbal and spatial ability.
