Sex-Related Differences and Similarities in Geographic and Environmental Spatial Abilities

Abstract

On average, males have reliably been found to outperform females on several traditional psychometric tests of spatial ability, especially those involving a component of mental rotation. The evidence is much less clear and complete with respect to performance on larger-scale and more ecologically valid tasks generally associated with geographic investigation, such as those involved in wayfinding, map use, and place learning. In this study, a community sample of 43 females and 36 males performed a large battery of spatial and geographic tasks. The battery included psychometric tests; tests of directly acquired spatial knowledge from a campus walk; map-learning tests; tests of extant geographic knowledge at local, regional, national, and international scales; tests of object-location memory; a verbal spatial task; and various self-report measures of spatial competence and style. Both univariate means tests and multivariate discriminant analyses largely agree on a comprehensive picture of the spatial abilities and styles of males and females. In particular, the study supports a “route-survey” distinction between the sexes, and replicates previously published evidence of female superiority at a static object-location memory task. Males were found to most clearly outperform females on tests of newly acquired spatial knowledge of places from direct experience rather than tests of extant knowledge or map-derived knowledge; the latter tests revealed no clear differences between the sexes.

Keywords::

• Gender
• geographic skills
• sex
• spatial abilities