Understanding Individual Differences in Spatial Ability within Females: A Nature/Nurture Interactionist Framework

Casey, M. Beth

doi:10.1006/drev.1996.0009

Cited by 86 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Sex differences have also been a favorite topic of developmental psychologists. Although some cognitive sex differences are now typically attributed to an interaction of biological and social factors (e.g., Casey, 1996), differences in social behavior between boys and girls are most typically attributed to the adoption of culturally imposed gender roles (e.g., Eagly, 1987). Although one's culture, a proximal mechanism, undeniably exerts a profound effect on one's gender-specific behaviors and roles, evolutionary psychology proposes that males and females have evolved different "strategies" relating to mating and childrearing and that these different evolved strategies, or distal mechanisms, underlie sex differences in associated behaviors across all human cultures (e.g., Bjorklund & Shackelford, 1999;Geary, 1998).…”

Section: Developmental Antecedents Of Adult Sex Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology

2000

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Evolutionary developmental psychology involves the expression of evolved, epigenetic programs, as described by the developmental systems approach, over the course of ontogeny. There have been different selection pressures on organisms at different times in ontogeny, and some characteristics of infants and children were selected in evolution to serve an adaptive function at that time in their life history rather than to prepare individuals for later adulthood. Examples of such adaptive functions of immaturity are provided from infancy, play, and cognitive development. Most evolved psychological mechanisms are proposed to be domain specific in nature and have been identified for various aspects of children's cognitive and social development, most notably for the acquisition of language and for theory of mind. Differences in the quality and quantity of parental investment affect children's development and influence their subsequent reproductive and childcare strategies. Some sex differences observed in childhood, particularly as expressed during play, are seen as antecedents and preparations for adult sex differences. Because evolved mechanisms were adaptive to ancestral environments, they are not always adaptive for contemporary people, and this mismatch of evolved mechanisms with modern environments is seen in children's maladjustment to some aspects of formal schooling. We argue that an evolutionary perspective can be valuable for developing a better understanding of human ontogeny in contemporary society and that a developmental perspective is important for a better understanding of evolutionary psychology.

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Section: Developmental Antecedents Of Adult Sex Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology

2000

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“…Given the fact that processing imagery in working memory was critical for the successful completion of the task, it is not surprising that males were generally faster, more accurate, and more confident (Loring-Meier and Halpern 1999). Casey's (1996) bent-twig model argues that success on mental rotation tasks is related to the interaction of biological and environmental variables. The current study makes a unique contribution in that it indicates that relatively little supervised learning could significantly narrow the difference between Male and Female subjects for both processing time and accuracy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Male experts expressed significantly higher confidence than did female experts. Casey (1996) considered the interaction of biological and environmental influences on differences in spatial ability between the sexes. She tested a "bent twig" model that gives most males a biological and environmental advantage when it comes to processing spatial information.…”

Section: Individual Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Categorization with Aerial Photographs

Lloyd

Hodgson

Stokes

2002

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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This article investigates how people process information from aerial photographs to categorize locations. Three cognitive experiments were conducted with human subjects viewing a series of aerial photographs and categorizing the land use for target locations. Reaction time, accuracy, and confidence were considered as dependent variables related to the success of the categorization process. The first experiment considered two categories of land use, the relative size of the visual field, and two rounds of unsupervised learning. Subjects were more successful categorizing higher-order land-use classes than they were lower-order categories. Subjects were significantly more accurate and confident with larger photographs, but not significantly faster. Significant improvements between the rounds indicated unsupervised learning was taking place. The second experiment confirmed the hypothesis that geographers would have more success than nongeographers during a single categorization round. The types of land use considered were significantly related to success. Subjects were again more accurate and confident, but not faster with larger visual fields. A third experiment considered seven rounds of supervised learning, the sex of the subjects, and the amount of experience with photographs. Reaction time and confidence improved with supervised learning, but accuracy did not. Subjects had significantly more success with photographs they viewed more than one time. Male subjects were significantly faster, more accurate, and more confident than female subjects at doing the categorization task. By the seventh learning round the male advantage in reaction time and accuracy was no longer significant, but the male advantage in confidence continued through seven learning rounds.

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“…The participants were initially oriented either facing out toward the open part of the room or facing back toward the opposing wall, and the participants were tend to outperform females in visuospatial tasks, such as mental rotation ability, alignment with the horizontal, and body orientation estimation (Casey, 1996;Casey & Brabeck, 1989;Linn & Petersen, 1985;Parameswaran, 1995;Proffitt et al, 1995;Ross, 1974;Sholl, 1989).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in spatial perception of body tilt

Naylor

McBeath

2008

Perception & Psychophysics

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The tendency for observers to overestimate slant is not simply a visual illusion but can also occur with another sense, such as proprioception, as in the case of overestimation of self-body tilt. In the present study, distortion in the perception of body tilt was examined as a function of gender and multisensory spatial information. We used a full-body-tilt apparatus to test when participants experienced being tilted by 45º, with visual and auditory cues present or absent. Body tilt was overestimated in all conditions, with the largest bias occurring when there were no visual or auditory cues. Both visual and auditory information independently improved performance. We also found a gender difference, with women exhibiting more bias in the absence of auditory information and more improvement when auditory information was added. The findings support the view that perception of body tilt is multisensory and that women more strongly utilize auditory information in such multisensory spatial judgments.

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Understanding Individual Differences in Spatial Ability within Females: A Nature/Nurture Interactionist Framework

Cited by 86 publications

References 24 publications

Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology

Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology

Visual Categorization with Aerial Photographs

Gender differences in spatial perception of body tilt

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