小学生空间能力及其发展倾向的性别差异研究

本研究探讨了二、四、六年级小学生空间能力的性别差异表现特征.结果表明,在空间能力的加工方式、加工精确性及加工策略上均存在着性别差异,而在加工速度上表现为无差现象.在空间能力的发展趋势和空间组合能力方面,女生表现出稳定的优势;在空间旋转能力上,男生的优势随年龄增长表现为减弱并消失的特征.     

Sex Differences Among Personality Correlates of Mathematical Ability in High School Seniors

To help explain female inferiority in mathematical performance, sex differences in personality correlates of mathematical ability were examined. Three instruments, Rotter's I-E Scale, Miller Adult Locus of Evaluation Scale, and Byrd's Attitude Concerning Life and Self were administered to measure four personality factors: locus of control, locus of evaluation, identity confusion associated with resolution of the adolescent identity crisis, and self-esteem. Each personality score was correlated separately by sex with Scholastic Aptitude Test mathematical and verbal scores. The sample included 68 females and 63 males, randomly selected from college-bound seniors in a predominantly white, middle-class, suburban high school, chosen to limit the effects of social, economic, racial and educational differences. Two variables were partialed out for control purposes: number of mathematics courses completed and IQ Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test. For females only, internal locus of control and self-esteem were significant correlates of mathematical ability, and were seen as facilitators of female mathematical functioning in the face of environmental impediments to female mathematical performance.     

Sex Differences in Mathematics Components of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills

The Mathematics Problem Solving (MRS) and Mathematics Concepts (MC) subtests of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were investigated for content and psychometric item bias at grades 3, 6, and 8. A small proportion of items were identified in each subtest which significantly favored either males or females. No skill classification, item content or location trends could be found for the mathematics subtests at each grade level. Across the grade levels, items in the MC subtest favored males for grades 3 and 6, but females were favored at grade 8. The procedure used in the study is generalizable to other groups (minority or grade levels). Test consumers have the right to know whether the test they use is fair for selected groups of students. Results from empirical investigations should appear in the Test Manual that accompanies the test battery.     

高中生成就动机、物理学习成绩对其自我监控的影响

随机选取高中生314名,采用量表和问卷法探讨了成就动机、物理学习成绩对中学生物理问题解决自我监控能力发展的影响。结果表明：1、不同层次的动机,其自我监控能力不同,即高学习目标低成绩目标者监控水平最高,其次是高学习目标高成绩目标者,再是低学习目标低成绩目标者,最后是高成绩目标低学习目标者;2、物理学习成绩越好,中学生物理学习自我监控能力的水平越高。     

Sex Differences in Math-Intensive Fields

Despite impressive employment gains in many fields of science, women remain underrepresented in fields requiring intensive use of mathematics. Here we discuss three potential explanations for women's underrepresentation: (a) male-female mathematical and spatial ability gaps, (b) sex discrimination, and (c) sex differences in career preferences and lifestyle choices. Synthesizing findings from psychology, endocrinology, sociology, economics, and education leads to the conclusion that, among a combination of interrelated factors, preferences and choices-both freely made and constrained-are the most significant cause of women's underrepresentation.     

Sex Differences in Episodic Memory

ABSTRACT— Research shows sex differences in episodic memory. These differences vary in magnitude as a function of the type of material to be remembered. Throughout the life span, verbal episodic-memory tasks yield differences favoring women. In contrast, episodic-memory tasks requiring visuospatial processing result in differences favoring men. There are also sex differences favoring women on episodic-memory tasks requiring both verbal and visuospatial processing and on face-recognition tasks. Thus, there may be a small, general episodic-memory advantage for women—an advantage that can increase by the advantage women have over men in verbal production and can be reversed by the male advantage in visuospatial tasks. In addition, environmental factors affect the magnitude of the sex differences in episodic memory.     

Evolution and Developmental Sex Differences

From an evolutionary perspective, childhood is the portion of the life span during which individuals practice and refine those competencies that facilitate survival and reproduction in adulthood. Although the skeletal structure of these competencies appears to be inherent, social interaction and play flesh them out during childhood so that they are adapted to local conditions. Darwin's principles of sexual selection, including male-male competition over mates and female choice of mating partners, successfully explain the acquisition and expression of reproductive competencies in hundreds of species. When this perspective is applied to humans, it predicts sex differences that are, in fact, found in the childhood activities of boys and girls and that reflect sex differences in reproductive strategies in adulthood. A few of these differences are described, along with cultural factors that modify their expression. The article closes with a brief discussion of the social and scientific implications.     

Sex Differences in Neonates' Cuddliness

The authors undertook the present study to determine whether under ecologically valid, low-stress conditions, female and male neonates could be differentiated on cuddliness. Sixteen female and 15 male neonates were videotaped interacting briefly with both a female and a male adult who were blind to the sex of the neonate. Raters coded degree of cuddliness and activity level. Results showed that raters could discriminate the sex of the neonate on the basis of degree of cuddliness. Discussion focuses on the importance of theoretical and methodological considerations in assessing sex differences in behavioral characteristics of neonates.     

Age Differences and Sex Differences in some Introvertive and Emotional Traits

Two quantitative experiments involving eidetic imagery, performed in 1928–29 on two girls, ages 11 and 15 years, respectively, were repeated in every detail in 1974 on the same two persons. It was found that minor changes (perhaps unreliable) had occurred in the precision of eidetic projection, and that both Ss retained their ability to project a seen circle onto a target square and compare the two for “goodness of fit.”     

Bragging About One's School Grades: Gender Stereotyping and Students' Perception of Their Abilities in Science,Mathematics, and Language

Three studies examined stereotypes about the abilities of women and men and their implications for self-evaluation. All the three studies suggest that women are generally perceived as better than men in language and that men are generally perceived as better than women in science and math. Furthermore, Study 1 reveals that female university students in psychology who believe that men are better than women in science feel significantly less able in science, have lower self-esteem, and report lower school average than students who do not believe that men are better than women in science. Study 2 shows that female high school students in a language career track rate their own ability in science less highly and report lower school grades in math when gender stereotypes are salient than when they are not. Study 3 shows that male university students in science tend to rate their own ability in language less highly and report significantly lower school grades in language when gender stereotypes are activated prior to their self-evaluation than when they are not. Overall, the findings suggest that gender stereotypes can have detrimental consequences for self-concept of ability of both male and female students. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Individual Differences in Working Memory Abilities in Healthy Adults

The goal of this study was to understand the role of individual characteristics such as age, gender and education of healthy adults on working memory abilities, as conceptualized in the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad. The sample comprised 302 adults aged from 18 to 65 with different educational backgrounds. Participants were submitted to a protocol of established neuropsychological tests that were selected to assess the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad. The results revealed that these factors influenced working memory abilities differentially. Education level influenced all the three components in the same direction. Individuals with higher academic qualifications have better performance in tests assessing the central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad, whereas age affected performance in the task evaluating the central executive. Age and gender also influenced the performance in tasks related to visuospatial sketchpad in the sense that younger individuals or men reveal better visual and spatial abilities as conceptualized in the visuospatial sketchpad.     

Sex Differences in Right Hemisphere Tasks

We tested the hypothesis that sex differences in spatial ability and emotional perception are due to sex differences in intrahemispheric organization of the right hemisphere. If the right hemisphere is differently organized by sex—primarily specialized for spatial ability in men, but primarily specialized for emotional perception in women—then there should be a negative correlation between spatial ability and emotional perception within sex, and the greatest disparity between abilities should be found in people with characteristic arousal of the right hemisphere. Undergraduate men (N= 86) and women (N= 132) completed tests of Mental Rotation, Surface Development, Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity, Progressive Matrices, and Chimeric Faces. Although the expected pattern of sex differences was observed, there was no evidence for the hypothesized negative correlation between spatial ability and emotional perception, even after statistical control of general intelligence.