Are There Sex Differences in the Genetic and Environmental Effects on Mental Rotation Ability?

Abstract

Probably the most robust sex difference in cognitive abilities is that on average males outperform females in tests of mental rotation. Using twin data we tested whether there are sex differences in the magnitude of genetic and environmental effects on mental rotation test performance and whether the same or different genetic effects operate in females and males. The present study replicated the well-known male advantage in mental rotation ability. The relative proportion of variance explained by genetic effects did not differ between females and males, but interestingly, absolute additive genetic and unique environmental variances were greater in males reflecting significantly greater phenotypic variance in mental rotation test performance in males. Over half of the variance in mental rotation test performance was explained by genetic effects, which suggest that mental rotation ability is a good phenotype for studies finding genes underlying spatial abilities. Results indicate that females and males could be combined for such genetic studies, because the same genetic effects affected mental rotation test performance in females and males.

Genetic and Environmental Sex Differences in Mental Rotation Ability: A Japanese Twin Study

“…The results of this study are somewhat consistent with those of Vuoksimaa et al (2010). Although the latter study examined a Finnish sample and we examined a Japanese sample, the best-fitting model for both populations was the AE model.…”

“…In addition, no quantitative sex differences in the unique environmental influence on mental rotation ability were observed in this study. In contrast to the current and Finnish (Vuoksimaa et al, 2010) results yielded from genetic analysis, several studies have reported that family and social factors affect the impact of sex on mental rotation ability (Levine et al, 2005;Lippa et al, 2010;Silverman et al, 2007). The divergent results may indicate a gene-environment correlation (Rutter, 2006): the genetic contribution to mental rotation ability may be mediated by family and social factors.…”

Prenatal testosterone does not explain sex differences in spatial ability

“…To date, behavioral genetic studies have only found small 32 , or non-existent 33 , sex differences in etiology of any cognitive abilities. In line with this, studies on the etiology of spatial ability found only negligible differences in genetic and environmental factors driving sex differences in spatial ability in males and females 19 , including in mental rotation 28 .…”

“…Both biological and environmental factors have been proposed to initiate and maintain the sex differences in spatial ability. Environmental explanations have highlighted the role of previous experiences and learning environments 26 , 27 , whereas biological investigations have concentrated on genetic and hormonal effects 28 – 31 . To date, behavioral genetic studies have only found small 32 , or non-existent 33 , sex differences in etiology of any cognitive abilities.…”

Investigating cognitive style differences in the perception of biological motion associated with visuospatial processing

“…The examination of differences in human cognitive functioning through the exploration of abilities such as spatial visualization (Halpern, 2000;Hyde, 2005) that involves using tasks associated with spatiotemporal ability (e.g., De Goede & Postma, 2008;Vuoksimaa, et al, 2010) constitutes an area of continuing research interest. Halpern (2000) defi ned this type of visual-spatial ability as cognitive processing involving "judgments about and responses to dynamic (i.e., moving) visual displays" (p. 101).…”