Teachers as role models: Are there gender differences in microcomputer-based mathematics and science instruction?

This study examines whether male and female teachers differ in (a) their background or training for instructional uses of microcomputers and (b) their uses of microcomputers to teach mathematics and science. Research carried out in 60 classrooms, 49 schools, and 25 districts in California provided data on district and school microcomputer policies; classroom contexts; and teachers' characteristics, instructional decisions, and practices. A secondary analysis of these data indicated that district and school characteristics and classroom organization and composition did not differ, by and large, among male and female teachers. Furthermore, gender was unrelated to teachers' subject matter and computer knowledge, patterns of microcomputer-based instruction, and instructional decisions and practices. Both female and male teachers provide leadership in the microcomputer movement, have the relevant training and experience which contributes to microcomputer use, use microcomputers for instruction in a variety of ways, and present equally viable role models.Funded by the National Institute of Education (NIE), this study was restricted to California for budgetary reasons. Nevertheless, California appears to be representative of microcomputer use in other leading states (Chambers & Bork, 1980).     

Sex differences in regret: all for love or some for lust?

Few sex differences in regret or counterfactual thinking are evident in past research. The authors discovered a sex difference in regret that is both domain-specific (i.e., unique to romantic relationships) and interpretable within a convergence of theories of evolution and regulatory focus. Three studies showed that within romantic relationships, men emphasize regrets of inaction over action (which correspond to promotion vs. prevention goals, respectively), whereas women report regrets of inaction and action with equivalent frequency. Sex differences were not evident in other interpersonal regrets (friendship, parental, sibling interactions) and were not moderated by relationship status. Although the sex difference was evident in regrets centering on both sexual and nonsexual relationship aspects, it was substantially larger for sexual regrets. These findings underscore the utility of applying an evolutionary perspective to better understand goal-regulating, cognitive processes.     

Who remembers best? Individual differences in memory for events that occurred in a science museum

Individual differences in memory and suggestibility were assessed in an experiment involving 1989 people who attended the Exploratorium, a science museum located in San Francisco. Subjects watched a brief film clip of an assault and later answered questions about it. Approximately half received misinformation about some critical items. Four demographic variables (gender, educational level, age, and occupation) were examined to determine their impact on memory performance. The principle of discrepancy detection predicts that, compared to individuals with a good memory, people who have poor memory to begin with will be relatively suggestible (that is susceptible to misinformation). Some of our findings were consistent with this principle. For example, children (5–10 years) and elderly (over 65) were relatively inaccurate and also relatively suggestible. Other findings were not consistent with the principle, for example the finding that artists and architects were relatively accurate, but they were also highly suggestible.     

Sex differences in conformity: Instrumental or communal response?

Male and female introductory psychology students (N=88) were asked to read a clinical case history and the opinion consensus of either (a) their peers, (b) advanced psychology students, or (c) Ph.D. clinical psychologists that the patient should be hospitalized for at least 90 days (an extreme treatment). Subjects then indicated on a scale of 10 to 90 days, the length of hospitalization they thought best. In a significant interaction effect (sex of subject × expertise of source) males were least influenced by the opinions of their peers and increasingly influenced as the source became more expert. Females, however, seemed most influenced by their peer group, recommending longest hospitalization terms in that condition. Results are interpreted in terms of sex-role identification and the emergence of an instrumental (task) or communal set.     

Are there gender differences in cognitive reflection? Invariance and differences related to mathematics

ABSTRACT

Cognitive reflection is recognized as an important skill, which is necessary for making advantageous decisions. Even though gender differences in the Cognitive Reflection test (CRT) appear to be robust across multiple studies, little research has examined the source of the gender gap in performance. In Study 1, we tested the invariance of the scale across genders. In Study 2, we investigated the role of math anxiety, mathematical reasoning, and gender in CRT performance. The results attested the measurement equivalence of the Cognitive Reflection Test – Long (CRT- L), when administered to male and female students. Additionally, the results of the mediation analysis showed an indirect effect of gender on CRT-L performance through mathematical reasoning and math anxiety. The direct effect of gender was no longer statistically significant after accounting for the other variables. The current findings suggest that cognitive reflection is affected by numerical skills and related feelings.     

Sex differences in aggression: Are current notions misleading?

Studied experimentally the influence of norms and sex of subjects on aggressive behaviour in same sex dyads. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) subjects will react aggressively to an unpleasant state of affairs, if they interpret it as being the result of violation of a norm on the part of another; (2) female subjects will display more aggression than male subjects under conditions of repeated provocation while male subjects will be more aggressive under conditions of infrequent or no provocation. In a 2 × 2 × 2 complete factorial design (norm violation versus norm enforcement; male versus female; low versus high reward for performance) 20 same sex pairs of students performed alternatively a sensory-motor task (victim) and a shock delivery task (aggressor). As predicted, subjects who consider other's behaviour to be a norm violation aggress more often (p <.0001). A significant interaction between sex of subject and norm violation is found in support for the second hypothesis (p <.05). It is concluded that positions grounded on the S-R paradigm are misleading for the understanding of sex differences in aggression.     

Sex differences in intellectual functioning: How much of a difference do genes make?

An X-linkage theory of inheritance of genes controlling sex differences in major intellectual traits is critically examined. A review of the research suggests that the mechanism of inheritance of differences in spatial visualization ability is X-linked recessive and its expression is probably testosterone-limited. However, the evidence concerning inheritance of differences in IQ does not support an X-linkage theory. Several characteristics of heritability estimates are discussed, including their specificity to a particular population at a certain point in time, their fluctuation with changes in amount of environmental variation, and the necessity of unconfounding sex and treatment in order to better determine the relationship between heritability and changeability of sex differences in specific intellectual trait expression.Parts of this paper were presented at the Western Psychological Association Convention, 1974.     

Sex differences in college student-teacher interactions: Fact or fantasy?

On-site observations analyzing student-teacher interaction for 50 college classes, matched by level, subject, and teacher's sex, revealed no difference in number and type of interactions in which male and female students participated. In female-taught classes, style differences were found: Male students' interactions were characterized by more student-teacher exchanges than females' interactions. From student questionnaires, differences in office visitation patterns were revealed, showing an apparent relationship to sex: Female students visited more female than male instructors. However, closer examination showed the student's major to be the key variable influencing visitation patterns. Results point to the need for testing a variety of variables in addition to sex before drawing conclusions about sex-related behavior.Ordering of authors was determined alphabetically. A CETA special project grant from the King-Snohomish Manpower Consortium (P. Dee Boersma, principal investigator) funded the research. The authors thank the Institute for Environmental Studies for providing space.     

Sex differences in face processing: Are women less lateralized and faster than men?

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of sex on hemispheric asymmetry and cooperation in a face recognition task. We used a masked priming paradigm in which the prime stimulus was centrally presented; it could be a bisymmetric face or a hemi-face in which facial information was presented in the left or the right visual field and projected to the right or the left hemisphere. The target stimulus was always a bisymmetric face presented centrally. Faces were selected from Minear and Park’s (2004) database. Fifty-two right-handed students (26 men, 26 women) participated in this experiment, in which accuracy (percentage of correct responses) and reaction times (RTs in ms) were measured. Although accuracy data showed that the percentage of correct recognition – when prime and target matched – was equivalent in men and women, men’s RTs were longer than women’s in all conditions. Accuracy and RTs showed that men are more strongly lateralized than women, with right hemispheric dominance. These results suggest that men are as good at face recognition as women, but there are functional differences in the two sexes. The findings are discussed in terms of functional cerebral networks distributed over both hemispheres and of interhemispheric transmission.     

Gender differences in mathematics anxiety: An artifact of response bias?

Abstract

Females are more likely than males to report anxiety about mathematics. Hunsley and Flessati (1988) examined two explanations for this difference: the sex-role socialization hypothesis, which states that gender differences occur as a result of differences in socialization, and the math experiences hypothesis, which states that math anxiety is due to previous experiences with mathematics, regardless of gender. They found support only for the math experiences hypothesis, and suggested that the gender difference in math anxiety may be an artifact of response bias.

The present study replicated the Hunsley and Flessati study and included an evaluation of response bias. One hundred and fifty Introductory Psychology students completed a series of questionnaires examining mathematics anxiety, attitudes and mathematical background. The findings of Hunsley and Flessati were replicated, however no evidence was found for a gender-linked response bias. An alternative explanation for the gender difference in math anxiety is proposed based on the finding that females are more self-critical.     

Sex differences in attraction to infants: When do they occur?

Harlow (1971) observed that all-female college audiences responded to a pictured infant rhesus monkey with an “ecstasy response,” while males were “completely unresponsive,” and females in coeducational audiences “inhibited the ecstasy response,” explaining these differences in terms of innate sex differences. The present study compared college students' self-reported attraction to pictures of 15 infant and adult nonhuman primates under several conditions. Infant pictures were of two types: infants which were engaged in typical infant behaviors (Infant Behavior), and those which were not (Infant). Subjects made judgments in same- or mixed-sex groups and reported degree of attraction publicly or privately. Ratio scores were used to represent each subject's attraction to infant or infant-behavior pictures compared with his or her attraction to pictures of adults. There were no significant sex differences in attraction to infant or infant-behavior pictures, and sex did not interact with any other variable. However, situational variables significantly affected the response. Males as well as females reported greater attraction to infant and infant-behavior pictures when they viewed the pictures in same-sex compared with mixed-sex groups. Both sexes reported greater attraction to infant and infant-behavior pictures privately than publicly.     

Sex differences in jealousy: evolutionary mechanism or artifact of measurement?

Two studies are presented that challenge the evidentiary basis for the existence of evolved sex differences in jealousy. In opposition to the evolutionary view, Study I demonstrated that a sex difference in jealousy resulting from sexual versus emotional infidelity is observed only when judgments are recorded using a forced-choice response format. On all other measures, no sex differences were found; both men and women reported greater jealousy in response to sexual infidelity. A second study revealed that the sex difference on the forced-choice measure disappeared under conditions of cognitive constraint. These findings suggest that the sex difference used to support the evolutionary view of jealousy (e.g., D. M. Buss, R. Larsen, D. Westen, & J. Semmelroth, 1992; D. M. Buss et al., 1999) likely represents a measurement artifact resulting from a format-induced effortful decision strategy and not an automatic, sex-specific response shaped by evolution.     

Warm and homely or cold and beautiful? Sex differences in trading off traits in mate selection

Prior research and theory suggest that people use three main sets of criteria in mate selection: warmth/trustworthiness, attractiveness/vitality, and status/resources. In two studies, men and women made mating choices between pairs of hypothetical potential partners and were forced to make trade-offs among these three criteria (e.g., warm and homely vs. cold and attractive). As predicted, women (relative to men) placed greater importance on warmth/trustworthiness and status/resources in a potential mate but less importance on attractiveness/vitality. In addition, as expected (a) ratings of ideal standards partly mediated the link between sex and mate choices, (b) ideal standards declined in importance from long-term to short-term relationships, with the exception of attractiveness/vitality, and unexpectedly, (c) sex differences were higher for long-term (compared to short-term) mate choice. Explanations and implications are discussed.     

Sex differences in mate preferences revisited: do people know what they initially desire in a romantic partner?

In paradigms in which participants state their ideal romantic-partner preferences or examine vignettes and photographs, men value physical attractiveness more than women do, and women value earning prospects more than men do. Yet it remains unclear if these preferences remain sex differentiated in predicting desire for real-life potential partners (i.e., individuals whom one has actually met). In the present study, the authors explored this possibility using speed dating and longitudinal follow-up procedures. Replicating previous research, participants exhibited traditional sex differences when stating the importance of physical attractiveness and earning prospects in an ideal partner and ideal speed date. However, data revealed no sex differences in the associations between participants' romantic interest in real-life potential partners (met during and outside of speed dating) and the attractiveness and earning prospects of those partners. Furthermore, participants' ideal preferences, assessed before the speed-dating event, failed to predict what inspired their actual desire at the event. Results are discussed within the context of R. E. Nisbett and T. D. Wilson's (1977) seminal article: Even regarding such a consequential aspect of mental life as romantic-partner preferences, people may lack introspective awareness of what influences their judgments and behavior.     

A place for nouns and a place for verbs? A critical review of neurocognitive data on grammatical-class effects

It is generally held that noun processing is specifically sub-served by temporal areas, while the neural underpinnings of verb processing are located in the frontal lobe. However, this view is now challenged by a significant body of evidence accumulated over the years. Moreover, the results obtained so far on the neural implementation of noun and verb processing appear to be quite inconsistent. The present review briefly describes and critically re-considers the anatomo-correlative, neuroimaging, MEG, TMS and cortical stimulation studies on nouns and verbs with the aim of assessing the consistency of their results, particularly within techniques. The paper also addresses the question as to whether the inconsistency of the data could be due to the variety of the tasks used. However, it emerged that neither the different investigation techniques used nor the different cognitive tasks employed fully explain the variability of the data. In the final section we thus suggest that the main reason for the emergence of inconsistent data in this field is that the cerebral circuits underlying noun and verb processing are not spatially segregated, at least for the spatial resolution currently used in most neuroimaging studies.     

Individual differences for sex differences in achievement attributions?

Past research has found a self-defensive bias in males and a self-derogatory bias in female achievement attributions. Dispositional explanations for these differences were examined in the present study. Subjects completed measures of Need for Achievement, Self-Esteem, Fear of Success, Attitudes Toward Women, and Androgyny. They later competed in same- or mixed-sex pairs on an anagram task which was prearranged in difficulty so that one subject clearly defeated his/her partner. Consistent with past research, males were more likely to attribute their outcomes to ability, and less likely to attribute their outcomes to effort and luck, than were females. Achievement motivation was the most consistently successful predictor of these sex differences.     

Simplicity: a unifying principle in cognitive science?

Much of perception, learning and high-level cognition involves finding patterns in data. But there are always infinitely many patterns compatible with any finite amount of data. How does the cognitive system choose 'sensible' patterns? A long tradition in epistemology, philosophy of science, and mathematical and computational theories of learning argues that patterns 'should' be chosen according to how simply they explain the data. This article reviews research exploring the idea that simplicity drives a wide range of cognitive processes. We outline mathematical theory, computational results and empirical data that underpin this viewpoint.     

Sex differences in motor performance of young children: Fact or fiction?

Prepubescent boys and girls who had participated for one or more years in a coeducational physical education program were classified by grade (3, 4, and 5) and year (1977, 1978, and 1979). Scores from the AAHPER Youth Fitness Test were analyzed for differences. Results indicated that females at prepubescent ages may be expected to perform at similar levels to boys of the same age on most test items. While differences were not significant, girls in 1979 were actually better than boys of the same age from the two previous years.     

Is alcoholism a disease? A critical review of a controversy

Commentators have repeatedly attacked the traditional view that alcoholism is a disease. Their arguments that alcoholism is a central aspect of life, a deviant life style, or a form of learned behavior are examined in the light of the history and philosophy of medicine as well as current bio-behavioral research. Our conclusion is that alcoholism, as a lawful pattern of observable signs and symptoms that deviate significantly from a norm of health, is a bio-psychosocial disease.