The Paleolithic Stone Age Effect? Gender Differences Performing Specific Computer-Generated Spatial Tasks

2008 ◽  
pp. 3578-3601
Author(s):  
Geoffrey S. Hubona ◽  
Gregory W. Shirah
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Motion Cues ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Spatial Tasks ◽  
Object Shapes ◽  
2D And 3D ◽  
Male Subjects

Most computer applications feature visual user interfaces that assume that all users have equivalent propensities to perceive, interpret, and understand the multidimensional spatial properties and relationships of the objects presented. However, the hunter-gatherer theory (Silverman & Eals, 1992) suggests that there are modern-day differences between the genders in spatial and cognitive abilities that stem from differentiated prehistoric sex roles. If true, there may be discrepancies in how males and females differentially utilize particular spatial visual cues and interface features. We report three experiments in which participants engage in visual spatial tasks using 2D and 3D virtual worlds: (1) matching object shapes; (2) positioning objects; and (3) resizing objects. Female subjects under-perform male subjects in the matching and positioning experiments, but they outperform male subjects in the resizing experiment. Moreover, male subjects make more use of motion cues. Implications for the design of gender-effective user interfaces and virtual environments are considered.

The Paleolithic Stone Age Effect? Gender Differences Performing Specific Computer-Generated Spatial Tasks

2009 ◽  
pp. 2473-2498
Author(s):  
Geoffrey S. Hubona ◽  
Gregory W. Shirah
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Motion Cues ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Spatial Tasks ◽  
Object Shapes ◽  
2D And 3D ◽  
Male Subjects

Most computer applications feature visual user interfaces that assume that all users have equivalent propensities to perceive, interpret, and understand the multidimensional spatial properties and relationships of the objects presented. However, the hunter-gatherer theory (Silverman & Eals, 1992) suggests that there are modern-day differences between the genders in spatial and cognitive abilities that stem from differentiated prehistoric sex roles. If true, there may be discrepancies in how males and females differentially utilize particular spatial visual cues and interface features. We report three experiments in which participants engage in visual spatial tasks using 2D and 3D virtual worlds: (1) matching object shapes; (2) positioning objects; and (3) resizing objects. Female subjects under-perform male subjects in the matching and positioning experiments, but they outperform male subjects in the resizing experiment. Moreover, male subjects make more use of motion cues. Implications for the design of gender-effective user interfaces and virtual environments are considered.

The Paleolithic Stone Age Effect? Gender Differences Performing Specific Computer-Generated Spatial Tasks

2009 ◽  
pp. 365-388
Author(s):  
Geoffrey S. Hubona ◽  
Gregory W. Shirah
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Motion Cues ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Spatial Tasks ◽  
Object Shapes ◽  
2D And 3D ◽  
Male Subjects

Most computer applications feature visual user interfaces that assume that all users have equivalent propensities to perceive, interpret, and understand the multidimensional spatial properties and relationships of the objects presented. However, the hunter-gatherer theory (Silverman & Eals, 1992) suggests that there are modern-day differences between the genders in spatial and cognitive abilities that stem from differentiated prehistoric sex roles. If true, there may be discrepancies in how males and females differentially utilize particular spatial visual cues and interface features. We report three experiments in which participants engage in visual spatial tasks using 2D and 3D virtual worlds: (1) matching object shapes; (2) positioning objects; and (3) resizing objects. Female subjects under-perform male subjects in the matching and positioning experiments, but they outperform male subjects in the resizing experiment. Moreover, male subjects make more use of motion cues. Implications for the design of gender-effective user interfaces and virtual environments are considered.

Assessing Cognitions in Bilinguals and Monolinguals Using Visual Spatial Tasks

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Chuneyeva ◽  
Mercedes Fernandez ◽  
Nicholas K. Lim ◽  
Lisa A. Long
Keyword(s):  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Spatial Tasks

Effects of Social Intelligence on the Milgram Paradigm

1977 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Burley ◽  
John McGuinness
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Social Intelligence ◽  
Personality Differences ◽  
Electric Shocks ◽  
Temperament Traits ◽  
Male Subjects

The study examined the effects of social intelligence on the Milgram (1963) paradigm. 24 male subjects were commanded by the experimenter to administer electric shocks (simulated to appear real) to a confederate. Social intelligence as measured significantly mediated the degree to which subjects were prepared to obey the experimenter's commands and inflict suffering on another. The finding was interpreted as suggesting that broader personality differences relating to obedience-disobedience and altruistic acts, such as alleviating the plight of a suffering victim, are more likely to be found in the realm of cognitive abilities than with traditional temperament traits.

scholarly journals Integrating Virtual Worlds with Tangible User Interfaces for Teaching Mathematics: A Pilot Study

Sensors ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 1775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graciela Guerrero ◽  
Andrés Ayala ◽  
Juan Mateu ◽  
Laura Casades ◽  
Xavier Alamán
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Teaching Mathematics ◽  
Tangible User Interfaces

scholarly journals Active Locomotion Increases Peak Firing Rates of Anterodorsal Thalamic Head Direction Cells

2001 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 692-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaël B. Zugaro ◽  
Eiichi Tabuchi ◽  
Céline Fouquier ◽  
Alain Berthoz ◽  
Sidney I. Wiener
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Small Reservoir ◽  
Motion Cues ◽  
Preferred Direction ◽  
State Dependent ◽  
Command Signals ◽  
Rats And Mice ◽  
Foraging Task ◽  
Self Motion

Head direction (HD) cells discharge selectively in macaques, rats, and mice when they orient their head in a specific (“preferred”) direction. Preferred directions are influenced by visual cues as well as idiothetic self-motion cues derived from vestibular, proprioceptive, motor efferent copy, and command signals. To distinguish the relative importance of active locomotor signals, we compared HD cell response properties in 49 anterodorsal thalamic HD cells of six male Long-Evans rats during active displacements in a foraging task as well as during passive rotations. Since thalamic HD cells typically stop firing if the animals are tightly restrained, the rats were trained to remain immobile while drinking water distributed at intervals from a small reservoir at the center of a rotatable platform. The platform was rotated in a clockwise/counterclockwise oscillation to record directional responses in the stationary animals while the surrounding environmental cues remained stable. The peak rate of directional firing decreased by 27% on average during passive rotations ( r 2 = 0.73, P< 0.001). Individual cells recorded in sequential sessions ( n = 8) reliably showed comparable reductions in peak firing, but simultaneously recorded cells did not necessarily produce identical responses. All of the HD cells maintained the same preferred directions during passive rotations. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the level of locomotor activity provides a state-dependent modulation of the response magnitude of AD HD cells. This could result from diffusely projecting neuromodulatory systems associated with motor state.

Covert orienting of attention in macaques. II. Contributions of parietal cortex

1995 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 698-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Robinson ◽  
E. M. Bowman ◽  
C. Kertzman
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Reaction Time Task ◽  
Visual Response ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Time Task ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Visual Targets

1. To understand some of the contributions of parietal cortex to the dynamics of visual spatial attention, we recorded from cortical cells of monkeys performing attentional tasks. We studied 484 neurons in the intraparietal sulcus and adjacent gyral tissue of two monkeys. We measured phasic responses to peripheral visual stimuli while the monkeys attended toward or away from the stimuli or when attention was not controlled. Neurons were tested while the monkeys gazed at a spot of light (simple fixation task), actively attended to a foveal target (foveal attention task), performed a reaction time task (cued reaction time task), made saccadic eye movements to visual targets (saccade task), or responded to a repetitious peripheral target (probability task). 2. In a previous paper we demonstrated that monkeys, like humans, responded more quickly to visual targets when the targets followed briefly flashed visual cues (validly cued targets) (Bowman et al. 1993). It has been hypothesized that the cue attracts attention to its locus and results in faster reaction times (Posner 1980). In the present physiological studies, visual cues consistently excited these neurons when they were flashed in the receptive field. Such activity might signal a shift of attention. Visual targets that fell within the receptive field and that immediately followed the cue evoked relatively weak responses. This response was due to a relative refractory period. 3. Next we tested attentional processes in these tasks that were independent of the visual response to the cue. We placed the cue outside of the receptive field and the target within the receptive field. We found that 23% of these cells had a significant decrease in their firing rate to validly cued targets in their receptive fields under these conditions. Strong responses were evoked by the same target when the cue was flashed in the opposite hemifield (invalidly cued targets). Thus this group of neurons responded best when attention was directed toward the opposite hemifield. 4. For another group of parietal cells (13%) there was an enhanced response to targets in the visual receptive field when the cue was in the same hemifield. For the remaining 64% of the cells there was no significant modulation in this task. 5. The cued reaction time task involved exogenous control of attention; the sensory cue gave spatial and temporal direction to attention. We used several other tasks to test for endogenous control of attention.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

scholarly journals The Precipitous Decline in Reasoning and Other Key Abilities with Age and Its Implications for Federal Judges

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Alan S. Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Computerized Adaptive Testing ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
Test Construction ◽  
Federal Judiciary ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Federal Judges ◽  
The Impact

U. S. Supreme Court justices and other federal judges are, effectively, appointed for life, with no built-in check on their cognitive functioning as they approach old age. There is about a century of research on aging and intelligence that shows the vulnerability of processing speed, fluid reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory to normal aging for men and women at all levels of education; even the maintained ability of crystallized knowledge declines in old age. The vulnerable abilities impact a person’s decision-making and problem solving; crystallized knowledge, by contrast, measures a person’s general knowledge. The aging-IQ data provide a rationale for assessing the key cognitive abilities of anyone who is appointed to the federal judiciary. Theories of multiple cognitive abilities and processes, most notably the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model, provide a well-researched blueprint for interpreting the plethora of findings from studies of IQ and aging. Sophisticated technical advances in test construction, especially in item-response theory and computerized-adaptive testing, allow for the development of reliable and valid theory-based tests of cognitive functioning. Such assessments promise to be a potentially useful tool for evaluating federal judges to assess the impact of aging on their ability to perform at a level their positions deserve, perhaps to measure their competency to serve the public intelligently. It is proposed that public funding be made available to appoint a panel of experts to develop and validate an array of computerized cognitive tests to identify those justices who are at risk of cognitive impairment.

Family background, cognitive abilities, and personality as predictors of education and occupational attainment across two generations

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig T. Nagoshi ◽  
Ronald C. Johnson ◽  
Kelly Ann M. Honbo
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Family Study ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Occupational Attainment ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Japanese Ancestry ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Male Subjects

SummaryThis study reports on the relative influences of parental attainment and cognitive ability and subjects’ own cognitive ability, personality, and social attitudes on the educational and occupational attainments and incomes of 183 Generation 3 subjects of Caucasian ancestry and 186 of Japanese ancestry originally tested in 1972–76 in the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition (HFSC) and re-tested in 1987–88. In contrast to earlier reports of sex differences in the influence of Generation 2 attainment and on Generation 3 attainment when these offspring were younger, family background had a trivial influence and own cognitive ability had a substantial influence on educational attainment for both racial/ethnic groups and both sexes. For income, however, own cognitive ability was only a significant predictor for male subjects. Within-family correlational analyses also supported this sex difference in influences on attainment.

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