Spatial Visualization Ability - Gender Differences

Gender Differences

Men on average have a standard deviation higher spatial intelligence quotient than women. This domain is one of the few where clear sex differences in cognition appear. It has also been found that spatial ability correlates with verbal ability in women but not in men, suggesting that women may use different strategies for spatial visualization tasks than men do. However, spatial ability is correlated with video games and other such activities, and thus gender difference in spatial ability may be linked to a difference in spatial experience, rather than actual difference in innate spatial ability. Indeed, University of Toronto researchers have discovered that differences between men and women on some tasks that require spatial skills are largely eliminated after both groups play a video game for only a few hours. Although some have claimed women are more "visually dependent" than men, this has recently been disputed. The adaptive significance, if any, of male superiority in spatial navigation, has recently been questioned.