Posted on 01/24/2005 9:01:14 AM PST by Rodney King
MEN frequently despair at women's map-reading skills - or rather their lack of them. Now scientists believe they have pinpointed the reason for this conflict between the sexes.
Researchers say it is all down to differences in the reliance of the sexes on either grey matter or white matter in their brains to solve problems. They found that in intelligence tests men use 6.5 times as much grey matter as women, but women use nine times as much white matter.
Grey matter is brain tissue crucial to processing information and plays a vital role in aiding skills such as mathematics, map-reading and intellectual thought.
White matter connects the brain's processing centres and is central to emotional thinking, use of language and the ability to do more than one thing at once.
Professor Rex Jung, a co-author of the study at the University of New Mexico, said: "This may help explain why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing, like mathematics and map-reading, while women tend to excel at integrating information from various brain regions, such as is required for language skills.
"These two very different pathways and activity centres, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence tests."
Previous studies have shown that women have weaker spatial awareness than men, making it harder for them to read maps.
Research has also found that in childhood, girls' vocabulary develops more quickly and that in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.
For the study, published in the online edition of the journal NeuroImage, researchers performed a series of brain scans on 26 female and 22 male volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging equipment.
All the volunteers were in good health, had no history of brain injury and the average IQ scores of the two sexes were similar.
Their brains were scanned while they carried out tests designed to assess their general intelligence.
Researchers then created a map of a brain showing the varying levels of activity in the brains of men and women. About 40 per cent of the human brain is grey matter and 60 per cent white matter
Thank you! Spent 4 long weeks in PLDC (Primary Leadership Development Course), and the NCOs drilled map reading into our brains....so now, I can handle a map with the best of 'em.
Once I beat the idea of orienting the map into my wife's head, she's had no problem reading them.
I'm always amused when looking for the location of someplace in Worcester. They direct me there using the most ineffecient routes! I know the back roads, usually I'm just looking for where something is located, and I can get myself there, I just need to pinpoint the location.
A friend was taking her daughter to a party not too long ago at the India Center here in town. She mentioned it and told me it looked like it was close to where I live. I knew exactly where it was, and that it wasn't anywhere close to my house, but closer to hers. Then she showed me the map she got from online. It was nowhere NEAR where the place actually was, so I told her how to find it. She was so appreciative, cause, had she not mentioned it, she would have been driving all night looking for the place! And this was the link from the India Center's website! MapQuest picked up the address and looked for that number on Main BLVD. rather than the correct address on Main STREET. Not sure why that happened.
I don't have time to read all the posts, but all the kind Doctor had to do was read Dr. Allan Pease's book "Why woman can't read maps, and Men don't listen" and he could of saved alot of his time. Who woulda thunkit?
"Hey, Nav; where the f*&^ are we??"
Good thing he's not the president of Harvard.
ok are we still lost or just totally confused!!!!!
"I can't figure out the instructions which usually go something like: drive north for 2.6 miles veer left for 6.7 miles then go east for 2 miles... I get lost after the fourth or fifth instruction. The map is easier to read."
Some folks a visual (prefer maps) other are oral (prefer instructions)
It all depends on how that person processes information.
Personnaly, I'm the visual type. Orient the map to the terrain and away you go. No muss, no fuss no mess no smell and Bingo! you're there.
Women are smart enough to know when they're lost and ask directions. Men drive around hoping they'll see a landmark (some bar they know), unwilling to admit they're not 'in control'.
The difference is that:
* Women are not good at following directions.
* Men are not good at asking for directions.
It's why so many of us are lost.
Viva La Differance!
Did I say that I was a genius? Sheesh. I just said I can read them. Oh, and that I use written directions for clarifying to my husband when he doubts if I've read the map correctly. What, you want me to admit I've made navigating mistakes? Of course, particularily if I'm unfamiliar with the area. Guess what? So has he.
To answer your question, smart aleck, there isn't one. Some interstates get halfway across, but none connect to the coast. 40 runs to Raleigh, and south past Wilmington, and 95 goes north out of Rocky Mount. None go further east than that. After that, interstates branch off into US highways or other roads. Good enough answer, Professor?
No. The research doesn't mean that no woman can read maps, or that all men can. It just says that on average, men will be more likely to do so than women. In a given population, the number of women who can do so will be smaller than the number of men who can.
Paging Lawrence Summers! Please pickup the white courtesy phone!
My wife can't read maps. She doesn't understand how to 'orient' the map and so can't figure-out if she has to turn LEFT or RIGHT. She insists that I write sequential directions: go to the 3rd traffic light & make a LEFT turn...
*bowing*
Sorry if I got huffy...having a bad day.
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