Posted on 11/27/2008 7:53:13 PM PST by neverdem
Male superiority on mental rotation tasks may develop within a few months after birth
The gender gap in spatial abilities — charted for more than 30 years — emerges within the first few months of life, years earlier than previously thought, psychologists report.
Males typically outperform females on spatial-ability tests by age 4, especially on tasks that require mental rotation of objects perceived as three-dimensional. Yet,
two studies of 3- to 5-month-olds, both published in the November Psychological Science, conclude that a substantially greater proportion of boys than girls distinguish a block arrangement from its mirror image, after having first seen the block arrangement rotated. Babies who prefer looking at the mirror image are presumed to have mentally rotated the block arrangement, recognized it and chosen to gaze at the novel mirror image.
One investigation was conducted by David Moore of Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., and Scott Johnson of the University of California, Los Angeles. The other was directed by Paul Quinn of the University of Delaware in Newark and Lynn Liben of Pennsylvania State University in University Park.
Both sets of researchers suspect that sex differences in mental rotation develop shortly after birth due to an unknown mix of genetic, biological and environmental influences.
“The result we found was really somewhat of a shocker,” Moore says. He had expected to demonstrate no sex difference in infants’ mental rotation skills, laying the groundwork for pinpointing the age at which this spatial gap first appears.
“Simultaneous reports by two different labs using two different techniques are difficult to dismiss,” remarks psychologist Nora Newcombe of Temple University in Philadelphia.
Still, the new reports don’t confirm that baby boys perform mental rotation tasks better than baby girls do, comments psychologist Susan Levine of the University of Chicago...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
hmm.
Mark Twain knew about such things, that's how Huck Finn, despite wearing a dress, was instantly recognized as a boy. In Twain's story, as I recall, he was asked to throw something at a specific target. He did it correctly and hit the target, which all that an observant lady needed to check his story out. She knew that a girl would do it in an impossible way and miss by a mile.
I believe the give-away was that he clasped his legs together to catch something dropped in his lap instead of spreading his legs to make a net out of the dress. I was always doubtful of the realism, but I believe that's whats in the story.
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... And when you throw at a rat or anything, hitch yourself up a tip-toe, and fetch your handup over your head as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about xix or seven foot ... And mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything in her lap, she throws her kneww apart; she don't clap them together ...
He also threaded a needle the wrong way.
We both were almost correct, but the book is so good that it's always a pleasure to find the place and quote it exactly - it's very much on topic of this thread:
And don't go about women in that old calico. You do a girl tolerable poor, but you might fool men, maybe. Bless you, child, when you set out to thread a needle don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a man always does t'other way. And when you throw at a rat or anything, hitch yourself up a tiptoe and fetch your hand up over your head as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about six or seven foot. Throw stiff-armed from the shoulder, like there was a pivot there for it to turn on, like a girl; not from the wrist and elbow, with your arm out to one side, like a boy. And, mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything in her lap she throws her knees apart; she don't clap them together, the way you did when you catched the lump of lead. Why, I spotted you for a boy when you was threading the needle; and I contrived the other things just to make certain.
It’s important to remember that these are just averages. Individuals have, well, individual results. It has always amused me that my husband, who has an M.S. in Engineering, can’t mentally rotate his way out of a paper bag, whereas I always aced the spacial rotation tests (as did my mother, an artist).
Aargh. Spatial. Not “spacial.” (Maybe I’m kind of “special” myself tonight! LOL!)
ya'd think a man ud find it more nacheral to poke the thread thru the hole.
Male dominance of chess is yet another example...
“At first read I thought that they were saying that baby boys could spit better.”
Well, us boys can spit better than girls. I suspect though that that’s a matter of practice. The genetic difference is boys think its cool (so they practice) and girls think it’s disgusting. I don’t know a single boy who didn’t practice spitting to get it right. I don’t know a single girl who will admit to having done so. So if girls practice spitting, it happens only in secret girl gatherings that they then deny ever occurred.
My two very liberal sisters used to give me directions to their homes in the suburbs of Chicago by using landmarks (go past O'Hare, turn right after such and such building, etc.) I looked at a map and figured out a way by following the streets and highways. By doing so I saved about thirty miles that it would have taken me by following my sister's instuctions. They were thoroughly shocked that I could get to a destination by reading a map.
As a woman I must be a freak of nature. I aced drafting and designed my own blue prints for my house. I had to teach my husband north south east and west and navigated our way by automobile through two foreign countries.
I can bust a hole through a wall with a hammer to make a perfect window within a quarter inch of perfect square without a ruler and lay flooring with just a carpet cutter. I build computers from scratch for my family without ever taking a computer course. I move my own furniture to make the perfect living space, cut my own lawn in perfect lines, put up a fence and paint it as well. I can even pith a frog and scale a fish without flinching,
That said, what do I need a man for?..... men make better warmth than an electric blanket and my dog is nice for protection but he can't use a gun, cook me a steak or change a dirty diaper and his strength comes in pretty handy when my design projects require it. Besides, he's just darn good looking.
Every family is different and we all make do with each others talents to make the best family that we can. It's a common sense survival thing and God requires that we love each other. Don't let this over generalized pop psychology crap drive a wedge between you and those you love.
According to an old theory I heard years ago —
Statistically speaking, males have a 50-50 chance of inheriting strong spatial abilities.
Statistically speaking, females have a 1 in 4 chance of inheriting strong spatial abilities.
The ability must also be passed on through the mother.
that’s because in stone age days men needed to know how to get to point b from point a.
meanwhile, back at the cave women were concerned about touching, which animal was touching them.
What makes you think the article is communist propaganda? Or even divisive?
It draws distinctions between men and women, of course, but I fail to see how it's aimed at driving anyone apart. Just a description of research into one of the areas where men and women differ.
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