Asymmetries in Gender-Related Familiarity with Different Semantic Categories. Data from Normal Adults

Abstract

Abstract. The mechanisms subsuming the brain organization of categories and the corresponding gender related asymmetries are controversial. Some authors believe that the brain organization of categories is innate, whereas other authors maintain that it is shaped by experience. According to these interpretations, gender-related asymmetries should respectively be inborn or result from the influence of social roles. In a previous study, assessing the familiarity of young students with different 'biological' and 'artefact' categories, we had observed no gender-related difference on any of these categories. Since these data could be due to the fact that our students belonged to a generation in which the traditional social roles have almost completely disappeared, we predicted that gender-related asymmetries should be found in older men and women. The familiarity of young and elderly men and women with various semantic categories was, therefore, studied presenting in the verbal and pictorial modality different kinds of living and artefact categories. Results confirmed the hypothesis, because elderly women showed a greater familiarity for flowers and elderly men for animals. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis assuming that gender-related asymmetries for different semantic categories is due to the influence of gender-related social roles.

Gender differences in category-specificity do not reflect innate dispositions

“…Such context-dependency calls for a more flexible account. One such account, which is clearly compatible with our results, is that gender differences may reflect differences in familiarity originating from socially-based gender roles, as suggested by Moreno-Martinez et al (2008) and Gainotti, Spinelli, Scaricamazza, and Marra (2013b).…”

Inborn and experience-dependent models of categorical brain organization. A position paper

“…An objection that could be raised to the “greater familiarity hypothesis” is that, given that in developed countries men no longer hunt and women share their cooking activities with men, gender-related categorical effects should have disappeared by now. This, however, is exactly what was found by Moreno-Martinez et al ( 2008 ) and by Gainotti et al ( 2010 , 2013b ). No difference was observed by Moreno-Martinez et al ( 2008 ) or by Gainotti et al ( 2010 ) in any of the categories considered in their studies when young males and females (who belonged to a generation in which the traditional social roles have almost completely disappeared) were taken into account.…”

“…An inborn account of these gender effects, proposed by Laws ( 2000 , 2004 ) and by Laiacona et al ( 2006 ) is at variance with the fact that these effects do not respect the boundaries between artifacts, animals and plant life categories. The observation that within the artifact categories men fare better with tools and women with “furniture” and “kitchen utensils” (Albanese et al, 2000 ; Moreno-Martinez et al, 2008 ; Gainotti et al, 2013b ) is consistent with an “experience-dependent” interpretation of gender-related asymmetries, but not with the assumption that evolutionary pressures may have provided each gender with the most efficient cognitive representations for their main work and foraging targets.…”

“…In Moreno-Martinez et al’s ( 2008 ) study, elderly females obtained better results with flowers, vegetables and kitchen utensils, whereas elderly males obtained better scores with musical instruments. In Gainotti et al’s ( 2013b ) study elderly men showed a greater familiarity for animals and women for flowers. Furthermore the suggestion advanced by Marra et al ( 2007 ) that the higher male familiarity with animals might derive from their hunting activities was confirmed by Scotti et al ( 2010 ).…”

“…This inborn account of gender effects, based on evolutionary pressures is, however, at variance with the fact that gender effects do not respect the boundaries between artifacts, animals and plant life categories. Several authors (e.g., Albanese et al, 2000 ; Moreno-Martinez et al, 2008 ; Gainotti et al, 2013b ) have shown that in the artifact categories, men fare better with tools and women with furniture and kitchen utensils. An objection that could be raised to the “greater familiarity hypothesis” is that, given that in developed countries men no longer hunt and women share their cooking activities with men, gender-related categorical effects should have disappeared by now.…”