Posted on 08/07/2002 8:06:38 PM PDT by Rodney King
Women on road to nowhere, study finds
Map reading is probably the main source of conflict between couples while driving. But the assertion that women are incapable of reading a map correctly has, unfortunately for the female sex, been backed up by several studies on spatial ability.
Men have used this convenient theory of the female lack of spatial judgment to criticize anything from a woman's ability to reverse into a parking space, to berating her when she fails to differentiate north from south while reading a map.
But now, it seems, the idea that women are wandering around in a kind of spatial vacuum -- where successful navigation is more down to luck than planning -- is only half the story.
While it is true that men find the instructions on a map easier to follow, women do far better when following a verbal set of directions, using landmarks to help them.
Psychologist Deborah Saucier, of the University of Saskatchewan, decided to re-examine the assumption that men are superior to women in their ability to navigate.
"Research into the field of spatial ability time and again concludes that men are superior," she says. "You get the impression that, for most of the time, women are wandering around lost, which is clearly not the case."
Saucier set up a simple experiment using male and female students, assigning them two different ways of getting from one point to another. One set of directions followed the classic Euclidian method employed by map designers, based on compass directions and distances, such as "walk north for 400 metres, then turn east."
The second set used landmarks, such as "carry on until you get to the large oak tree, then turn left and walk until you get to a house with a yellow door."
Having assigned men and women to both sets of instructions, she set the timer and waited at the destination. Her results will vindicate women who say that while they may not be able to read maps as well as men, they can find their way using landmarks.
You do know where women's intuition comes from, right? It evolved from millions and millions of years of not thinking!!!
(j/k) ;P
And you're never lost 'till you run out of gas.
I almost never get totally lost because I have a keen sense of direction. Just looking at where the sun is in the sky, I can instantly determine North, South, East and West. Of course, this ability doesn't help me much on cloudy days.
Well, then, women must write the phone books in Costa Rica, because...
When I was there the firs time I had the need to go to the United Airlines office in downtown San Jose.
So I picked up the phone book and sure enough there was the address:
"Diagonally across the street from where the American Embassy used to be."
Must be Ann Coulter...
I did get lost coming home from ReelFoot lake once. I was convinced I was heading home to Memphis until I crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri. LOL
Etymology: Piltdown, East Sussex, England
Date: circa 1918
: a supposedly very early hominid erroneously reconstructed from a combination of human and animal skeletal remains the latter of which were later found to have been planted by a hoaxer
It is a rather curious choice for identification, but I have seen much worse. Once we had a freeper named "textureslut." Go figure.
We aren't totally incapable. We just need a good tutorial on the subject, not being naturally inclined in the area. But I'd point out that many women aren't analytical either, but once taught how, we can be formidible. I am so glad someone took the time to teach me because I love to knee cap liberals with logic and analysis.
huh? are you talking to me? oh, now i am with it...
of course we understand directions. it's just that it translates to "hang a right, turn left at the first light, second at the third light and left into the parking lot. enter grocery store and buy a 12 pack..."
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