The importance of gesture in children's spatial reasoning

On average, men outperform women on mental rotation tasks. Even boys as young as 4 1/2 perform better than girls on simplified spatial transformation tasks. The goal of our study was to explore ways of improving 5-year-olds' performance on a spatial transformation task and to examine the strategies children use to solve this task. We found that boys performed better than girls before training and that both boys and girls improved with training, whether they were given explicit instruction or just practice. Regardless of training condition, the more children gestured about moving the pieces when asked to explain how they solved the spatial transformation task, the better they performed on the task, with boys gesturing about movement significantly more (and performing better) than girls. Gesture thus provides useful information about children's spatial strategies, raising the possibility that gesture training may be particularly effective in improving children's mental rotation skills.     

The effects of sex differences and evaluation on task performance and aspiration

An investigation was conducted of how evaluation differentially affects the performance and aspiration for future performance of 118 high school boys and girls. Subjects were selected to fit into either a superior or average intelligence group. In the high evaluation condition, subjects were instructed that their intelligence was being evaluated in anagram and visual-motor tasks they performed, while those in the low evaluation condition were instructed that the two tasks were being correlated. It was hypothesized that on a highly evaluated task, girls, when compared to boys, would show greater performance debilitation and would have lower aspirations for future performance. Although sex differences were found in performance debilitation and aspiration for future performance, they were not all in the predicted directions. Girls were equally debilitated in anagram performance under both evaluation conditions, while boys were debilitated in anagram performance only under high evaluation. When both boys and girls demonstrated a performance debilitation on the anagram task, their performance declined approximately 10%. No sex differences in performance were found on the visual-motor task. On both tasks, girls' aspirations were significantly affected by evaluation condition. The girls averaged 89% choosing the more difficult task in the low evaluation condition. Evaluation condition had no significant effect on aspiration for boys on either task. Intelligence showed no significant relationships.     

Cognitive sex differences: speed and problem-solving strategies on computerized neuropsychological tasks

Skill, strategy, and laterality measures obtained through computerized neuropsychological tasks, a reaction time (RT) test, and a visuospatial problem-solving test, the Perceptual Maze Test, were analyzed in relation to sex and handedness of 56 high-school students. Boys were significantly faster than girls on most RT subtasks (including a response-inhibition task) and made more two-choice RT response errors for right-sided stimuli, which may be interpreted as resulting from a less cautious strategy. In maze performance, boys were superior to girls. An analysis of separate phases of the maze-solution process suggested that boys preferentially used an impulsive-global strategy. Girls, using a more reflective-sequential task-solving strategy, were significantly slower, without hitting more targets. Compared to all other groups, left-handed girls (strongly left-handed) had lower performance on maze tasks with no target information, particularly in left-sided solution pathways. Results were interpreted as reflecting differences in hemispheric competence and activation patterns between the sexes. Signs of a less differentiated lateralization and slight dysfunction of visuospatial skills in the left-handed girls were discussed.     

Gender Differences and Cognitive Correlates of Mathematical Skills in School-Aged Children

Published information concerning the influence of gender on mathematical ability tests has been controversial. The present study examines the performance of school-aged boys and girls from two age groups on several mathematical tasks and analyzes the predictive value of a verbal fluency test and a spatial test on those mathematical tasks. More specifically, our research attempts to answer the following two questions: (1) Are gender differences in mathematical test performance among children interrelated with age and (2) do verbal and spatial nonmathematical tests mediate gender effects on mathematical test performance? Two hundred and seventy-eight 7- to 10-year-old children and 248 13- to 16-year-olds were selected from schools in Colombia and Mexico (231 boys and 295 girls). The age effect was found to be significant for all measures, with scores improving with age. Results showed that boys and girls in both age groups scored similarly in most subtests, but that differences emerged in the performance of mental mathematical operations and in resolving arithmetical problems. In the latter – but not in mental math – older boys outperformed older girls, whereas no gender differences were observed in the younger groups. After controlling for age, it was found that the spatial test was, indeed, a significant mediator of gender effects, while the verbal task was not.     

Girls who use "masculine" problem-solving strategies on a spatial task: proposed genetic and environmental factors.

This study investigated strategy and performance differences between right-handed boys and girls on a mental rotation task. Based on predictions from Casey and Brabeck's (1990) theory of sex differences, the study was also designed to identify a target group of right-handed girls with the optimal combination of genetic and environmental factors (high math/science achievers with nonright-handed immediate relatives). They were predicted to show strategies and performance more similar to those of the boys than to those of both the low math/science achieving girls and the high math/science girls with all right-handed immediate relatives (predicted to have the nonoptimal genotype). Strategy preference was measured using selective interference, whereby subjects solved mental rotation items concurrently with either verbal or visual-spatial interference tasks. Group comparisons were made on the amount of decrement in mental rotation performance as a result of the two types of interference tasks. This provided a basis for comparing the groups on the use of visual-spatial or verbal strategies on the mental rotation task. The boys: (1) did not show a significant advantage over the girls on the mental rotation items, but (2) did depend more on visual-spatial strategies than the girls, and (3) depended less on verbal strategies than the girls. The target girls: (1) outperformed the low math/science achieving girls on the mental rotation items and did not show a significant advantage over the other high math/science group, (2) depended more on visual-spatial strategies than both the other two groups of girls, and (3) depended less on verbal strategies than the low math/science girls, while showing no significant difference compared to the nonoptimal high math/science girls. Examining within-group differences, the boys preferred visual-spatial strategies, while the girls in both the nontarget groups preferred verbal ones. However, for the target girls, no within-subject strategy differences were found. The present findings support the theory that, like the boys, the target girls depend more on visual-spatial strategies than do other girls. It is possible that the target girls use a combination of visual-spatial and verbal strategies when solving mental rotation tasks.     

Visual versus phonological abilities in Spanish dyslexic boys and girls

Phonological and visual theories propose different primary deficits as part of the explanation for dyslexia. Both theories were put to test in a sample of Spanish dyslexic readers. Twenty-one dyslexic and 22 typically-developing children matched on chronological age were administered phonological discrimination and awareness tasks and coherent motion perception tasks. No differences were found between groups on the coherent motion tasks, whereas dyslexic readers were impaired relative to controls on phonological discrimination tasks. Gender differences followed the opposite pattern, with no differences on phonological tasks, and dyslexic girls performing significantly worse than dyslexic boys in coherent motion perception. These results point to the importance of phonological deficits related to speech perception in Spanish, and to possible gender differences in the neurobiological bases for dyslexia.     

Social Memory of Preschool Girls and Boys

In two experiments, 40 female and 40 male preschoolers attending a day-care center were shown photographs of children attending the center, and were asked either to name each pictured child (recall condition) or to point to the picture of the child as the experimenter said the child's name (recognition condition). In both experiments, girls and boys did not differ significantly in the number of correct identifications on either the recall or recognition tasks. The results do not support Feldstein's (1976) conclusion that preschool girls show better social memory than preschool boys.     

Development of gender discrimination: Role of stereotypic and counterstereotypic gender cues

Toddlers (41 girls and 35 boys) between 18 and 37 months old were given four gender discrimination tasks, each consisting of 6 pairs of color drawings. Three tasks depicted pairs of preschool girls and boys holding either sex-typical toys (stereotypic cues), sex-atypical toys (counterstereotypic cues), or no toys. The fourth task paired pictures of female-typed and male-typed toys. For each pair, subjects were asked to point to either the girl (girls' toy) or boy (boys' toy). Gender discrimination increased with age. Young children performed at chance level on all tasks. Older children made fewer correct choices on the Toy Alone task than on the tasks depicting children. Performance generally was unaffected by stereotyping or counterstereotyping of gender cues. Sex differences were minimal.Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD, April 1987.     

Efficacy of awareness of strategy and overt verbalization for recall by kindergarten students.

Two prevailing models for teaching memory strategies for remembering were compared for two kindergarten classes (45 boys, 30 girls). A third class provided a control. One class received instruction in specific and efficacious strategies for recall on three discrete tasks: sequential memory, paired-associate memory, and clustering recall. The second class received the same instruction embedded in an overt verbalization procedure adapted form Bash and Camp (1985). The control class received as much practice as the two instructional groups but no instruction on strategy or overt verbalization. Significant gains in memory were made on paired associates at posttest for both the strategy-only group and the overt-verbalization group. Overt verbalization inhibits recall on paired associates at delayed posttest and its effect on sequential memory at posttest remains equivocal.     

Improvement in gross motor performance between 3 and 5 years of age

This study examined gross motor performance of 101 typically developing children between 3 and 5 years of age (48 boys, 53 girls, M age = 3.9 yr., SD = 0.5). All children performed 7 different gross motor tasks which were rated on a 5-point scale. Age and sex were assessed by an ordinal-logistic model, and odds ratios were calculated for each task using age and sex as covariates. For standing on one leg, walking on a beam, hopping on one leg, running, and taking stairs, statistically significant age differences were found, while for rising and jumping down, none were apparent. Mean motor performance did not differ between boys and girls on the tasks. The older the children were, the better they performed on the tasks.     

Adolescents' expectancies of success,self-evaluations,and attributions about performance on spatial and verbal tasks

The present study examined the expectancies of success, evaluations of performance, and achievement-related attributions that high school students made about verbal and spatial tasks that typically show sex differences. Although no sex differences were found in task performance, boys expected to do better than girls on both the spatial and verbal tasks. After completing the task, the girls continued to evaluate their performance more negatively than did boys on the spatial tasks. On spatial tasks girls also attributed to themselves less ability and saw the tasks as being more difficult than did boys. The results suggest that there are generalized, rather than task-specific, sex differences in achievement expectancies, evaluations, and attributions. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for sex-related differences in cognitive functioning and subsequent achievement behaviors.The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Judith Offer Fund and from the Spencer Foundation.     

Teacher and peer reactions to boys' and girls' play styles

Seventy children (35 boys and 35 girls) aged 24 to 30 months were observed in play groups consisting of 12–15 2- and 3-year-old children and two teachers. The social interaction was coded using an observation schedule which allowed for coding the children's behaviors and reactions to that behavior by others in the environment. The behavior scores were factor analyzed, using the complete sample of 180 children with six factors (play styles) resulting. Children who were high and low on each factor were examined to see if play style influenced the type of social reaction received. Children who preferred to work at tasks quietly received positive teacher feedback, but there was no change in peer interaction; children who engaged in active motor play received positive peer feedback, but negative teacher reactions. Children who were passive received less peer reaction and played alone significantly more than other children. Sex differences in reactions did not appear except when the child was engaged in male- and female-typical behaviors when examining scores on one factor only. When combinations of factors are examined (e.g., activity level and task performance), then different patterns of responses start to appear for boys and girls. The implications for differing patterns of social reactions to different play styles are discussed.Data analyses were supported by BRSG Grant RR07980 awarded by the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health. The final write-up was completed on a postdoctoral fellowship (Grant No. 1 T32 MH 16955-01) through the Oregon Social Learning Center.     

Rimes are not necessarily favored by prereaders: evidence from meta- and epilinguistic phonological tasks

This article explores young children's facility in phonological awareness tasks requiring either the detection or the articulation of head, coda, onset, and rime subsyllabic units shared in word pairs. Data are reported from 70 nonreading children and 21 precocious readers attending preschools. Prereading children were able to articulate shared heads, codas, and onsets, although rimes rarely were articulated. Precocious readers were able to articulate shared rimes, but articulation performance was still most accurate for onsets and codas. Rimes and heads were equally accessible in the detection task and were identified more often than onsets and codas (nonreaders) and codas (readers). It is concluded that the articulation advantage for nonrime units cannot simply reflect early reading instruction. This disjoint pattern of phonological awareness in detection and production tasks does not support Goswami's phonological status hypothesis. Results may instead reflect quite distinct influences on epilinguistic and metalinguistic phonological development.     

小学儿童一维空间方位传递性推理能力的发展

研究了小学儿童一维空间方位传递性推理能力的发展水平及认知策略 ,同时 ,对心理模型理论进行了检验。被试为城市中等小学 7岁、9岁、11岁儿童各 2 4名 ,男女各半。 4种实验任务分别为三前提单模型、三前提双模型、四前提单模型和四前提双模型。采用个别实验 ,儿童在前提呈现的情况下进行推理。主要研究结果 :(1)从小学 7岁到 11岁 ,儿童的一维空间方位传递性推理能力明显提高 ,7岁儿童初步形成了一维空间方位推理能力 ,9岁和 11岁基本具有了这种能力 ;(2 )随着年龄增长 ,使用模型建构策略解决问题的儿童人次越来越多 ,绝大部分 11岁儿童都能使用这一策略进行推理。但即使儿童使用了模型建构策略 ,他们的推理成绩也没有反映出模型数量所造成的任务难度差异 ,即不符合心理模型理论关于模型数量的主要预期。     

Developmental differences in drawing performance of the dominant and non-dominant hand in right-handed boys and girls

This paper addresses the development of fine motor skills in the dominant and non-dominant hand. A total of 60 right-handed children, aged 4-12 years old, were divided in five groups of 12 children, with six girls and six boys in each group. The children were presented with drawing tasks that had to be performed with the dominant and non-dominant hand. Small or large targets had to be connected by lines making either a zigzag (discrete) or slalom (continuous) movement. For each task, effects of age group, gender, hand, and target size were examined for drawing time, percentage of stop time, drawing distance, velocity, and errors. Comparison of stop times in both tasks showed that the zigzag task was performed in a discrete way while the slalom task was performed more continuously, except in the youngest children, who performed both tasks in a discrete manner. With increasing age the children performed the tasks faster, more accurate and with shorter stops. No significant differences were found between boys and girls. While a shorter drawing distance and less errors were observed for the dominant hand in both tasks, drawing time and velocity were not significantly different between both hands. However, the percentage of stop time was higher for the dominant hand. Moving to smaller targets resulted in slower and less accurate performance. A significant interaction of age group and hand was found for errors in both tasks, and for stop time and velocity in the slalom task, suggesting differential maturational changes for both hands in discrete and continuous drawing tasks.     

An investigation of first‐order false belief understanding of children with congenital profound visual impairment

This study assessed theory of mind understanding in children with congenital profound visual impairment (CPVI): children who have had no access to visual information throughout development. Participants were 18 children with CPVI and no other impairments, aged between 5 and 11 years, and 18 children with normal vision, matched individually on chronological age, verbal IQ and verbal mental age. Three first‐order false belief tasks were presented twice each; the three tasks varied in the extent of deception and involvement of the child. Six of the children with CPVI failed one or more of the false belief tasks; all sighted children passed all of the tasks. The manipulations of deception and involvement did not influence the performance of the children with CPVI. Participant characteristics of the children with CPVI were examined in relation to their performance on the false belief tasks: chronological age and type of school attended were not found to be related to performance; verbal IQ and verbal mental age were found to differ in children with good and poor performance on the false belief tasks. The results are consistent with either a general pattern of delay in theory of mind development for children with CPVI, or with a subset of children who have longer‐term difficulties in this area.     

Parental child-rearing attitudes associated with Type A behaviors in children

The relation of Type A behaviors to parental child-rearing attitudes was assessed for 177 mothers, 153 fathers, and their children in preschools. Type A behaviors of children were measured on the Japanese version of the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH), and parental child-rearing attitudes were measured on the Parents' Attitudes Test (PAT). Children were classified as Type A and Type B on the basis of their MYTH scores, and parental child-rearing attitudes in the two types were compared in a combination of parental sex (mothers vs fathers) and child's sex (boys vs girls). Analysis showed that especially mothers and fathers of Type A boys had less concern for their children than their peers whose boys were classified as Type B. The notion that boys showing Type A behaviors might develop Type A behavior patterns by striving to obtain more expression of concern or affection from their parents was presented.     

Development of gender labeling: Effect of age of pictured children

Toddlers (27 girls and 25 boys) between 20 and 42 months of age were given three gender discrimination tasks, each consisting of 12 pairs of photographs of girls and boys at one of three age levels: 3, 8, or 13 years. The subject's task was to point to the designated target (girl or boy) on each trial. Subjects' gender discrimination improved with age, with a fairly sharp transition from chance to accurate responding occurring at approximately 29 months. The age of pictured children did not affect performance.     

Sex differences and practice effects on two visual-spatial tasks

Sex differences on visual-spatial tasks have been assumed to be present in young children, and performance on visual-spatial tasks has been assumed to be resistant to modification. Third and fifth graders were pretested on embedded and successive figures. Half of the 110 children then received limited feedback after which both groups were posttested. Grade, time of testing, and type of task significantly affected visual-spatial performance. Additional study might indicate whether amount of practice influences final level of performance for girls and boys and the asymptote on visual-spatial tasks is similar.     

Task characteristics and performance in interpersonal cognitive problem solving

The authors examined the extent to which performance on interpersonal cognitive problem-solving (ICPS) tasks is affected by whether the goals within the dilemmas to be addressed are sex typed. Fifty children, aged 7-8 years old, were tested for the core ICPS skills of Alternative Solutions Thinking (AST) and Consequential Thinking (CT) on a series of 8 social problem-solving tasks, 4 having goals characteristically more attractive to boys and 4 with goals more attractive to girls. A 2 x 2 MANOVA was used to compare the performances of boys and girls on each set of sex-typed tasks with the 3 dependent variables of liking for the tasks, number of alternative solutions suggested, and the number of consequences anticipated. As expected, liking for the tasks was higher if the activities were characteristically associated with the participant's own gender (p < .001), although the different tasks did not produce any significant gender differences in the numbers of AST or CT suggestions they prompted. Gender differences in children's peer relationships were considered, and the implications of these results for the format of ICPS interventions are noted.