Sex differences in the weighting of metric and categorical information in spatial location memory

Here, in the first of two reports that test predictions from the hunter-gatherer hypothesis, we focus on sex differences in motor control. Published evidence confounds the cognitive demands, the muscles used and the spatial location in which tasks are performed. To address these issues our participants used hand or arm movements to track a moving target within near space. Study 1 identified an optimal level of task difficulty for the differentiation of male and female performance and showed that women tracked better using their hands and men using their arms. Employing the optimal level of task difficulty, Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 and, for men, demonstrated a significant correlation between arm tracking and performance on the nonmotor sex-dimorphic Mental Rotations task. This correlation suggests that the same or related events are responsible for the development of sex differences in motor and cognitive systems. The distal (hand) muscles are controlled by the primary motor cortex via two dorsolateral corticospinal tracts whereas the proximal (arm) muscles are controlled via two ventromedial corticospinal tracts. Our findings point to possible sex differences in these two neural pathways and they are compatible with an evolutionary origin as predicted by the hunter-gatherer hypothesis.

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Asymmetrical Learning of Locations on Maps: Implicit Learning, Prior Knowledge and Sex Differences

Cartographic Perspectives ◽

10.14714/cp63.157 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 20-50

Author(s):

David L. Patton ◽

Robert Earl Lloyd

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Spatial Cognition ◽

Prior Knowledge ◽

Implicit Learning ◽

Search Task ◽

Geographic Information ◽

Learning Processes ◽

Apparent Contradiction ◽

Categorical Information

Women have been reported to have an advantage for the memory of unique objects in space while men have been reported to have an advantage on tests of knowledge of geographic information. The current research considers how prior knowledge and asymmetrical learning processes might be related to this apparent contradiction in the literature concerning spatial cognition. Asymmetrical brains allow us to encode map locations as both categorical and coordinate information. Categorical information is expressed verbally, for instance, “City A is located in the northwest quadrant of the map,” and is easier to learn but not very precise. Coordinate information is more precise but takes longer to learn. Prior knowledge of locations may result in subjects relying more on coordinate information.Human subject testing was used to examine differences in performance when women and men learned and recalled city locations on maps. Learning was achieved through the use of a repeated search task. Results indicated that subjects implicitly learned the locations of cities during the search task. The distribution of the cities on the maps and whether the cities were known or novel affected performance. The evidence supports the assertion that men may have a greater interest in geographic information, and the additional attention they devote to such information allows them to utilize prior knowledge and gives them an advantage when processing well-known places. The evidence also supports the assertion that women may generally have an advantage learning novel maps because they tend to encode more categorical information, and this information is useful for remembering general locations and can be learned faster.

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Sexual orientation related differences in spatial memory

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617703930037 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 376-383 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

QAZI RAHMAN ◽

GLENN D. WILSON ◽

SHARON ABRAHAMS

Keyword(s):

Sexual Orientation ◽

Object Recognition ◽

Spatial Memory ◽

Spatial Location ◽

Group Differences ◽

Relational Information ◽

Location Memory ◽

Object Location Memory ◽

Spatial Layouts ◽

Males And Females

The purpose of this study was to investigate and extend previously reported sex differences in object location memory by comparing the performance of heterosexual and homosexual males and females. Subjects were 240 healthy, right-handed heterosexual and homosexual males and females. They were instructed to study 16 common, gender-neutral objects arranged randomly in an array and subsequently tested for object recall, object recognition and spatial location memory. Females recalled significantly more objects than males, although there were no group differences in object recognition. Decomposition of significant interactions between sex and sexual orientation on spatial location memory (controlling for differences in object recall, age and IQ) revealed that heterosexual females and homosexual males scored better than heterosexual males, and no different from each other. There were no differences between homosexual and heterosexual females. The findings suggest that homosexual males and heterosexual females encode, store and retrieve positional and relational information about spatial layouts similarly, pointing to within-sex variations in the neural architecture underlying spatial memory. (JINS, 2003, 9, 376–383.)

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