Studied the influence of task content and sex on the relationship between intelligence and cortical activation in 26 males and 25 females administered verbal, numerical, and figural versions of an elementary cognitive task. Results suggest comparatively lower cortical activation in more intelligent individuals, but the pattern interacted with sex…

Four experiments using Piaget's water-level task investigated whether containers tilted at larger angles produce more error than those at smaller angles. Found that the orientation effect occurred between genders but was absent in male subjects when manipulated within subjects; males performed more accurately on easier stimulus trials; and mental…

Analysis of personal and educational histories and test data of 33 learning disabled adults revealed that many characteristics of learning disabled youngsters described in the literature persist into adulthood. Some significant sex differences in the reasoning section of the Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive Ability Test and in math achievement are also…

An existing large data set, the Health and Retirement Study 2000 (HRS 2000) was used to explore the relationship between cognition and other factors for individuals aged 65 and older, with a final sample of 1,610 males and 3,549 females. Using structural equation modeling, the entire model was tested to determine if there were differences in how…

This study confirmed the following: Fowler's (1989) finding that duration is reduced for repeated words that involve Given information; evidence that Given repetitions are restricted to intra-topic discourse; evidence that duration is increased for new repetitions under intra-topic conditions; and evidence for shortening and lengthening are…

A longitudinal study among American adolescents revealed (1) an insignificant impact of field dependence-independence on the development of formal operational thought; (2) continuous development of combinatorial reasoning and propositional logic abilities, but little increase in comprehension of proportionality; and (3) sex differences in formal…

A total of 48 children from five to six years of age were shown pictures of males and females performing sex-consistent and sex-inconsistent activities. Children were tested a week later for recall of these activities and the sex of the actor performing them. Sex-consistent activities were found to be more memorable than sex-inconsistent…

Ninety 5- and 6-year-old children equally divided by sex were assigned randomly to one of three emotion-inducing conditions (self-focused happy, other-focused happy, or neutral emotion-inducing) and then given varying numbers of rewards. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive processes initiated by emotional states that may influence…

Highly creative children (n=100) and uncreative children (n=100) were selected from 1,450 fifth- and sixth- grade students. Comparisons using data from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking revealed significant differences in terms of quantity and quality of primary process content. Girls gave more libidinal content and boys gave more aggressive…

Examined whether 6.5- and 5.5-month-old infants believe, like 11-month-old infants, that a moving object's size affects how far a stationary object is displaced in a collision. After a habituation event, tests indicated that the 6.5-month-old infants and 5.5-month-old female infants believed the size of the moving object affected the collision…

This quantitative study of imagery in 96 undergraduates addresses the problem of individual differences in the characteristics of mental imagery workspaces. A 20-item questionnaire embodying nine characteristics of mental imagery workspaces was administered to 78 females and 18 males. Analysis of variance by gender disclosed significant higher…

A. Wigfield and J. Meece (1988) developed the Mathematics Anxiety Questionnaire (MAQ) to measure the cognitive and affective aspects of mathematics anxiety. In particular, using school-aged students, Wigfield and Meece have provided evidence that the MAQ measures two factors identified as Worry and Negative Affective Reactions. This study used…

Neurologist Richard M. Restak discusses empirical research that demonstrates significant brain-sex differences between males and females. He asserts that the typical primary classroom is geared to skills that come naturally to girls but develop slowly in boys, while the reverse is true in higher level science classes. (Author/WD)

Assessed sex differences in performance on the subtests of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children using more than 2,500 children ages 2-1/2 to 12-1/2 years old. Results confirmed previous research with female superiority on short-term memory tasks and male superiority on spatial-visualization skills. (Author/ABL)

Over the last decade or so, researchers have started to describe some of the ways young children begin to acquire and apply certain gender-relevant concepts, constructs, and behaviors. Researchers are beginning to build developmental models detailing young children's acquisition of certain gender-typed behaviors and gender schema factors. The…