The quality of the Bender-Gestalt performance of 72 normal class-six Sierra Leone, West African children, representing four sub-cultures with varying degrees of modernization, was investigated. The quality of the Bender reproductions of the most modernized sub-culture was significantly higher than that of the remaining three sub-cultures. Over-all, boys' Bender performances were of significantly higher quality than the girls' Bender performances. The interaction of gender and sub-culture was significant only for the two village sub-cultures, insofar as the girls produced poorer quality protocols than did the boys. This result parallels the gender division of labor in adulthood in village life.
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