Young children's spontaneous utterances of mental terms and the accuracy of their memory behaviors: a different methodological approach

The purpose of this study was to determine whether young children's spontaneous utterances of mental terms would be congruent with the accuracy of their memory behaviours, and whether the use of an incidental memory task would yield similar developmental patterns as other methodologies. It was hypothesized that if children realize that internal mental activities influence behavioural actions, then the children's behavioural actions (recall) would be congruent with their utterances. A total of 27 three‐ and five‐year‐old children spontaneously used cognitive verbs such as knowing, forgetting, remembering, thinking, guessing and betting during a recall task. The results revealed that 39% of the 3‐year‐old children's behavioural responses and 67% of the 5‐year‐old children were congruent with their spontaneous utterances. These and other findings were consistent with studies that utilized different methodologies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of a Spatial Activity Questionnaire I: Items Identification

The present study aimed to develop an empirically-derived spatial activities questionnaire that would include gendered and neutral, as well as spatial and non-spatial activities. A total of 496 participants from Canada and the U.S. indicated how often they participated in 138 specific activities during their childhood. Exploratory factor analysis complemented by a multivariate analysis of variance resulted in eleven factors reflecting masculine-spatial; masculine-non- spatial; feminine-spatial; feminine-non-spatial and neutral-spatial components. Further item reduction resulted in a 27-item spatial activities questionnaire representing masculine spatial, masculine non-spatial, feminine spatial, and feminine non-spatial activities. This research constitutes the first step in the process of identifying a small set of activities that are clearly distinct in terms of their spatial nature and gender-typing.     

Mom, Let Me Play More Computer Games: They Improve My Mental Rotation Skills

This study investigated how 3-D and 2-D computer game practice and delivery as well as individual differences affect performance on two tests of mental rotation (Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test and Card Rotation Test). Sixty-one US undergraduates from the Midwest completed 4 h of either massed or distributed practice. While computer game practice improved mental rotation scores in general, women’s gains were significantly greater than men’s, and the most significant gains were accomplished when practice was massed. High mathematical ability, gender, and type of practice significantly predicted improvement scores. The findings suggest that even very minimal computer game practice may improve performance on mental rotation tasks.     

Gender-linked Differences in the Toys, Television Shows, Computer Games, and Outdoor Activities of 5- to 13-year-old Children

This study was designed to compare how 5- to 13-year-old children's leisure activity preferences differ with age and gender. Responses from 60 boys and 60 girls about their favorite toys, television shows, computer games, and outdoor activities were compared across leisure categories. The results showed that gender was a significant factor. Overall, boys spent more time in these leisure activities than girls did. They spent the most time engaged in sports, watching television, and playing computer games, whereas girls spent the most time watching television. Results from a gender index for all activities indicated that boys' leisure preferences became slightly more masculine with age. For girls, preferences for television shows became more feminine with age, but preferences for toys, computer games, and sports became less feminine. These self-chosen preferences may provide differential opportunities for the development of visual-spatial skills, achievement, initiative, self-regulation, and social skills.     

Children's and adults' recall of sex‐stereotyped toy pictures: Effects of presentation and memory task

Gender schema theories predict a memory bias toward sex‐congruent information. The present study examined how presentation of stimuli and encoding conditions influence gender schematic processing in children and adults. One hundred and sixty 5‐ to 13‐year olds and adult males and females viewed 36 sex‐stereotyped toy pictures that were presented in a static and dynamical way. Half of the participants were asked to memorize the pictures (intentional memory) and half were not told that they would be expected to later recall the pictures (incidental memory). Weak gender schematic processing was observed only during the incidental memory task. Children and adults recalled more static than dynamic gender‐stereotyped pictures, and performance was superior in the intentional than in the incidental memory condition. Gender schematic processing was similar across the age groups. In addition, participants were more likely to recall male‐stereotyped toys. Implications for gender schema theories and education are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A League of Their Own: Do Single-Sex Schools Increase Girls�� Participation in the Physical Sciences?

With the rapid shifts in the education of women in the United States, and the underrepresentation of women in fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), an issue generating much controversy is whether women may benefit more from single-sex education or coeducation. The present study surveyed 548 U.S. high-school boys and girls from single-sex and coeducational high-schools from the Midwest. Half of the participants completed a mathematics test under stereotype threat (ST) condition and half under no threat condition. Although girls in single-sex schools had higher achievement motive and self-esteem than those in coeducational schools, they were not more likely to pursue STEM careers. Overall, students in single-sex schools outperformed students from coeducational schools on the math test. Girls?? math performance was significantly higher in the ST condition than in the no threat condition.     

Sex differences in Nintendo Wii performance as expected from hunter-gatherer selection

To test the hunter-gatherer theory of cognitive sex differences, men and women each played four video games on a Wii console: two games simulating skills necessary for hunting (navigation and shooting) and two games simulating skills necessary for gathering (fine motor and visual search). Men outperformed women on the two hunting games, whereas there were no sex differences on the gathering skill games. The findings are discussed in terms of evolutionary psychology theory.