Sex differences in non-verbal and verbal abilities in childhood and adolescence

Toivainen, Teemu; Papageorgiou, Kostas A.; Tosto, Maria Grazia; Kovas, Yulia

doi:10.1016/j.intell.2017.07.007

Cited by 53 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Understanding the developmental patterns of sex differences in intellectual abilities is a challenging task; however, it is a question that warrants research attention because such a question has important social, educational, and political implications ( Toivainen et al, 2017 ). Despite years of research, sex differences in creativity remain an intriguing issue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 4-Year Longitudinal Study of the Sex-Creativity Relationship in Childhood, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood: Findings of Mean and Variability Analyses

2018

Front. Psychol.

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The relationship between sex and creativity remains an unresolved research question. The present study aimed to approach this question through the lens of the developmental theory of sex differences in intelligence, which posits a dynamic pattern of sex differences in intellectual abilities from female superiority in childhood and early adolescence to male superiority starting at 16 years of age. A total of 775 participants from three age groups (i.e., children, adolescents, and emerging adults) completed a 4-year longitudinal study comprising four assessments of creative thinking at 1-year intervals. Creative thinking was assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production. While the results revealed female superiority in childhood and early adolescence, male superiority was not found in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Rather, greater sex similarities and greater male variability were found based on mean and variability analyses, respectively. This study elucidated the link between sex and creativity by (1) taking a developmental perspective, (2) employing a 4-year longitudinal design in three age groups (i.e., children, adolescents, and emerging adults), and (3) analyzing sex differences based on both mean and variability analyses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 4-Year Longitudinal Study of the Sex-Creativity Relationship in Childhood, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood: Findings of Mean and Variability Analyses

2018

Front. Psychol.

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“…Sex differences are small to negligible in most cognitive traits 1 , 2 . However, some measures show differences between males and females 3 – 6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The effect of prenatal testosterone on other spatial measures is unclear. A recent study suggested that TTT is not applicable to a range of measures of verbal and non-verbal abilities, in a sample aged between 2 to 16 years 2 . However, the study did not include any spatial ability measures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal testosterone does not explain sex differences in spatial ability

Toivainen

Pannini

Papageorgiou

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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The most consistent sex differences in cognition are found for spatial ability, in which males, on average, outperform females. Utilizing a twin design, two studies have shown that females with male co-twins perform better than females with female co-twins on a mental rotation task. According to the Twin Testosterone Transfer hypothesis (TTT) this advantage is due to in-uterine transmission of testosterone from males to females. The present study tested the TTT across 14 different spatial ability measures, including mental rotation tasks, in a large sample of 19–21-year-old twins. Males performed significantly better than females on all spatial tasks, with effect sizes ranging from η2 = 0.02 to η2 = 0.16. Females with a male co-twin outperformed females with a female co-twin in two of the tasks. The effect sizes for both differences were negligible (η2 < 0.02). Contrary to the previous studies, our results gave no indication that prenatally transferred testosterone, from a male to a female twin, influences sex differences in spatial ability.

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“…This indicates that no item in TOBT shows DIF by gender. Toivainen et al (2017) used a large longitudinal twin sample to estimate sex differences in nonverbal and verbal abilities over time, using a variety of measures. Their study also investigated the influence of prenatal testosterone on these differences by comparing females with male cotwins to females with female co-twins.…”

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Differential Item Functioning of Ankara University Examination for Foreign Students by Recursive Partitioning Analysis in the Rasch Model

Altıntaş

Kutlu

2020

International Journal of Assessment Tools in Education

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This study aims to determine whether items in the Ankara University Examination for Foreign Students Basic Learning Skills Test function differently according to country and gender using the Recursive Partitioning Analysis in the Rasch Model. The variables used in the recursive partitioning of the data are country and gender. The population of the study is composed of 2476 individuals. Since the study includes comparisons across countries, the country is accepted as a criterion in determining the sample group. Thus, the sample of the study consists of 615 individuals selected from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, and Syria. To investigate differential item functioning (DIF) of the items of the test, the Rasch tree method was used. As a result of the analysis, DIF has been detected in 16 items at the 0.001 significance level. However, these items have been identified to have similar difficulty parameters in all countries. Finally, items have not shown DIF according to gender.

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Sex differences in non-verbal and verbal abilities in childhood and adolescence

Cited by 53 publications

References 48 publications

A 4-Year Longitudinal Study of the Sex-Creativity Relationship in Childhood, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood: Findings of Mean and Variability Analyses

A 4-Year Longitudinal Study of the Sex-Creativity Relationship in Childhood, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood: Findings of Mean and Variability Analyses

Prenatal testosterone does not explain sex differences in spatial ability

Investigating Differential Item Functioning of Ankara University Examination for Foreign Students by Recursive Partitioning Analysis in the Rasch Model

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