Why women cannot read maps...

[sOKaLiBoY]

Finally - why women can't read maps
From correspondents in New Mexico
January 24, 2005

MEN frequently despair at women's map-reading skills - or rather their lack of them. Now scientists believe they have pinpointed the reason for this conflict between the sexes.

Researchers say it is all down to differences in the reliance of the sexes on either grey matter or white matter in their brains to solve problems.
They found that in intelligence tests men use 6.5 times as much grey matter as women, but women use nine times as much white matter.

Grey matter is brain tissue crucial to processing information and plays a vital role in aiding skills such as mathematics, map-reading and intellectual thought.

White matter connects the brain's processing centres and is central to emotional thinking, use of language and the ability to do more than one thing at once.

Professor Rex Jung, a co-author of the study at the University of New Mexico, said: "This may help explain why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing, like mathematics and map-reading, while women tend to excel at integrating information from various brain regions, such as is required for language skills.

"These two very different pathways and activity centres, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence tests."

Previous studies have shown that women have weaker spatial awareness than men, making it harder for them to read maps.

Research has also found that in childhood, girls' vocabulary develops more quickly and that in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.

For the study, published in the online edition of the journal NeuroImage, researchers performed a series of brain scans on 26 female and 22 male volunteers using magnetic resonance imaging equipment.

All the volunteers were in good health, had no history of brain injury and the average IQ scores of the two sexes were similar.

Their brains were scanned while they carried out tests designed to assess their general intelligence.

Researchers then created a map of a brain showing the varying levels of activity in the brains of men and women. About 40 per cent of the human brain is grey matter and 60 per cent white matter

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12033956-13762,00.html

[kasia]

which explains why, although we may be slower when it comes to using maps, we are better at remembering and verbalizing directions.

did they attribute any of it to socialization?

[SunWuKong]

Research has also found that in childhood, girls' vocabulary develops more quickly and that in later life women can speak 20,000 to 25,000 words a day compared to a man's 7000 to 10,000.

why do i find this funny?

[asvenus]

grrrr i hate articles like this...as someone who was a tomboy, no make that just a boy growing up i find it so ridiculous that socialisation is ruled out in favour of outdated and sexist biological arguments.
i have frequently taken 'tests' that allegedly determine spatial awareness skills etc and often score higher than male friends, what does this mean? i am really some kind of closet transgendered person?? no, unfortunately its not that exciting, simply that growing up i was more involved in games and activities that demanded more than finding the right colour dress for barbie or how to untangle her hair...i used to love things like orienteering, hence my map reading abilities are very good...
and wtf..'intellectual thought'..i think Rex Jung needs to, for lack of a better phrase..get f**ked...

[SunWuKong]

i have frequently taken 'tests' that allegedly determine spatial awareness skills etc and often score higher than male friends, what does this mean? i am really some kind of closet transgendered person??

no. it means you're an outlier in studies like the one mentioned in the article.

[achtungbaby]

I had no idea women had a hard time using mapquest or yahoo maps.

[moser]

Women do? Thought that was just my mom.

[kimpossible]

Can they also do a study to find out why guys won't stop to get some damn directions when they're lost?

[sOKaLiBoY]

Can they also do a study to find out why guys won't stop to get some damn directions when they're lost?


it's just a macho thing. we think we can figure anything out on our own

[applehead]

did they actually get the men to read
maps while scanning for brain activity?
because i'd like to know the secret!

[s1eve]

i want to know why women can't seem to be able to operate a dvd player, let alone find a particular channel on cable, yet they can operate a microwave and oven with ease.

DISCLAIMER: Just kidding!!! :tongue: *ducks for cover*

[YuheiCarreau]

Can they also do a study to find out why guys won't stop to get some damn directions when they're lost?

Wouldn't need to stop and ask directions if the woman in the passenger seat could read the map. :biggrin:

[nola]

Why women cannot read maps...

doesn't matter if the man does not consult maps in the first place.

[kimpossible]

So what exactly is the point of all these 'women aren't good at X' studies? What valued skills are men not good at, and therefore are proven to have limited capacity for, according to studies?

[asvenus]

^^this is my source of contention with studies such as these...whenever they come across a skill women are supposedly weaker than men at, it is immediately labeled just that a weakness...when men fail (as they do consistently in everything..lol) it is highlighted as a source of masculinity and something to be proud of in that it reinforces their manhood...i just find it all so bloody annoying...when will they realise women are the best, we rule and start bowing down and worshipping at our feet goddammit!!

[Napoleon Chynamite]

when will they realise women are the best, we rule and start bowing down and worshipping at our feet goddammit!!

I already do that~

[kpih]

It bugs me that "scientists" are trying to explain human behavior in a vacuum. Socialization means nothing to them. Worse yet, in most of these studies statistical association is conveniently and faultily interpreted as causation. Cancer reserach is loaded with junk like this. Sensationalizing these "findings" is not good science. It is pseudo science.

[mrazntre]

Why women cannot read maps...

doesn't matter if the man does not consult maps in the first place.


we wouldn't have to stop if you women were able to read maps and point us in the right direction.

my sister can use a map, but my mom is helpless. i think it depends on how resourceful a person is because i know a lot of guys that can't read maps too (and i just call'em girls).

[kasia]

my sister can use a map, but my mom is helpless. i think it depends on how resourceful a person is because i know a lot of guys that can't read maps too (and i just call'em girls).

that's great, sy. i know you think it's funny, but i take offense to that. and i know we're friends, so it's hard for me to speak up and say so. this is often the case with women and men - we generally don't like to annoy our guy friends by speaking up for ourselves. but i find what you just wrote to be fucked up.

[kpih]

For further discussion of gender differences, please listen to the Diane Rhem show today on the NPR. You can hear it from the website: www.npr.org and search for Diane Rhem. Specifically, a show was broatcast this morning with regard to Lawrence "Larry" Summers' statment on women and science.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

It bugs me that "scientists" are trying to explain human behavior in a vacuum. Socialization means nothing to them. Worse yet, in most of these studies statistical association is conveniently and faultily interpreted as causation. Cancer reserach is loaded with junk like this. Sensationalizing these "findings" is not good science. It is pseudo science.
Look, as anxious as I can see you are to continue the "Social Scientists" vs. "Scientists" war here to take revenge for that mention of the Sokal debate, I'm sure that professors on both sides are very well familiar with basic statistics and logic. The problem is that the journalists who go to scientific press conferences are entirely innumerate and have no idea about the difference between correlation and causation.

[kitty]

that's bizarre. i had no idea that women were supposd to be bad at reading road maps. usually, i'm a better navigator than my bf -- never had a problem with keeping locations straight... OR asking people for directions.

[kpih]

Look, as anxious as I can see you are to continue the "Social Scientists" vs. "Scientists" war here to take revenge for that mention of the Sokal debate, I'm sure that professors on both sides are very well familiar with basic statistics and logic. The problem is that the journalists who go to scientific press conferences are entirely innumerate and have no idea about the difference between correlation and causation.

It is not my intention to "continue the war" or take "revenge". There is a reason why I put "scientists" in quotes. I am taking issue with the scientific approaches and researches that dismiss the impact of socialization in explaining human behavior in a social context. Journals misinterpreting research results is only part of the problem. The privately sponsored research enterprise also has its own agenda.

[TB4000]

Map from my house to my office...can you take the challenge?

[kitty]

Map from my house to my office...can you take the challenge?

41S to 55W to 90S to 12S.

what's so complicated about that?

[TB4000]

41S to 55W to 90S to 912S.

what's so complicated about that?
Kitty - Proving articles wrong since 1999.

[nola]

I am taking issue with the scientific approaches and researches that dismiss the impact of socialization in explaining human behavior in a social context. Journals misinterpreting research results is only part of the problem. The privately sponsored research enterprise also has its own agenda.Yes, looking at the big picture because nothing happens in a vacuum. The article I posted in the women and science thread says that the influx of women in the field of medicine has improved medicine and lowered the number of malpractice suits because women look at the bigger picture and the whole patient.