Test of verbal ability

Below are ten anagrams. Unscramble the letters in each to form a common English word. You will have two minutes to complete ten item:

– EILNST– EGHITW– AAENRS– AEGIMRT– ADIRWZ– AEKRST– CCENNOT– AALMNU– DEEGNR– EFORST

Intelligence and Gender Differences

Claire, Mallory and Brian

Overview of Gender Differences

No documented gender disparity in overall intelligence– Male advantage on spatial tasks– Female advantage on language and

memory tasks– Disproportionate male incidence of

dyslexia, delayed speech, attention disorders and mental retardation

Brain SizeBrain Size

– Broca’s Studies• Parisian hospital study – Men

have larger brains– 252 male brains, 140 female

brains– Male brains 14% larger in

mass• L’Homme Mort Cave Study –

Craniometry– Craniometry – measurement of

skull size– Male and female brain size

difference increasing over time• Problems with Broca’s

research (Gould, 1980)– Age and height differences –

females actually have the advantage

– Small number of brains analyzed in cave study

Brain size

– Modern study of brain size (Nopoulos et al., 2000)

• Male and female brains similar• No significant differences in volumes of

cerebrospinal fluid, volume of the cerebellum, cortical depth, gyral and sulcal shape, and degree of cortical surface complexity

• Males have larger cerebrum

Androgens

– Androgens – Kimura’s studies• Girls w/congenital adrenal hyperplasia –

better spatial skills• Boys with increased testosterone have

decreased spatial skills

– Estrogens (Collaer & Hines, 1998)• Exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES)• No physical effects on sex differences

Functional Organization

– Brain Lateralization Theory• “Left-brain” females and “right-brain” males?

• Theory does not work – females should be superior at math

– Bilateral language processing theory – • Damage to specific hemisphere has distinct effects on men,

but not women (Springer & Deutsch, 1981)

• Women use both hemispheres to process language, men more lateralized to left (Shaywitz et al., 1995)

• Research inconclusive– Other studies show same amount of lateralization (Frost et al.,

1999)– Meta-analysis: no significant differences (Sommer, Aleman,

Bouma, & Kahn, 2004)

Functional Organization

– Brain matter – MRI study (Haier, Jung, Yeo, Head, & Alkire, 2005)

• Women have more white matter and less gray matter than men in regions associated with intelligence

• Similar IQ scores, but brain functions in different ways– Men – frontal and parietal lobes– Women – frontal lobe and

Broca’s area– Allows for differences in IQ

subtests, but similar overall IQ

• Women’s brains more efficient?

Psychoevolutionary(Crawford, Krebs 1998)

Three main assumptions of Evolutionary psychologists– Pressure from natural

selection– Universal species-

typical solutions– Impact on differences

between the sexes“I just happen to be very tuned in to my ‘hunter and gatherer’ instinct.”

Psychoevolutionary theories (Crawford, Krebs 1998)

Gaulin and Fitzgerald’s Theory of Mating Systems– Large home range for males

• Home range refers to the area within which an animal freely travels on a regular basis

• Spatial differences based on way to find potential mate

Psychoevolutionary theories (Crawford, Krebs 1998)

Silverman and Eals’ Division of Labor Theory– Spatial measures showing male bias correspond to attributes that

would enable successful hunting.– Successful foraging would require finding food sources within such

configurations and relocating them in ensuing growing seasons.• The test

Kalahari Bushmen

– One of the last remaining hunter-gatherer societies in the world

– Also known as the San

Gender Roles and Stereotype Threat

– Stereotype Threat (Steele, 1999)• Fear of being subjected to a pejorative stereotype• Fear of inadvertently confirming that stereotype

via underperformance

Gender Roles(Good, Aronson, Inzlicht, 2003)

Can reinforce a stereotype by encouraging personal identification with it

• e.g. females as mathematically deficient

• males as linguistically deficient

Can depress the performance of either sex and thereby exaggerate inherent sex differences

Detecting Stereotype Threat

(Good, Aronson, Inzlicht, 2003)

Mediated through two factors:• Evaluative scrutinyEvaluative scrutiny: occurs when a person associates him/herself

with a given stereotype» Produces lack of enjoyment, anxiety, underperformance

• Identity salienceIdentity salience: when stereotype-relevant thoughts are instigated by group composition

» e.g. a black student in a primarily white classroom

Males, Females, & Stereotype Threat

(Wicherts, Dolan, Hessen, 2005)A study investigating the adverse of effects of male-dominant stereotype on female math performanceStereotype threat typically activated by:

• Presenting a test as diagnostic for the stereotyped ability

• Asking for relevant biographical information (before or after the test)

Method

ParticipantsParticipants: : 159 students enrolled in a psychology courseDesign: Design: participants randomly divided into two conditions

• Control- test prefaced by a statement discounting gender differences

• Stereotype- test prefaced by an emphasis on gender differences

Materials: Materials: three math tests• Difficult test- 15 challeging SAT questions• Easy test- 20 relatively easy multiplication problems• Persistence test- 24 addition and subtraction problems

Results

Three way interaction gender, testing condition, and test difficulty

• Stereotype condition enhanced the women’s scores on the easy test, while depressing scores on the difficult test

• Stereotype condition neither enhanced men’s scores on the easy test, nor depressed scores on the difficult test

Details of the Findings

ConclusionsStereotype threat – Hampers performance on difficult tasks– Enriches performance on easy tasks in stigmatized group

Arousal– The observed decrements in difficult task performance may be attributable to

arousal (i.e. anxiety or agitation)Evaluation Apprehension– Diminished performance not due simply to a fear of test-taking– Females scored higher on easy tasks when exposed to negative stereotypes

ReferencesGood, C., Aronson, J., Inzlicht, M. (2003). Improving adolescents’

standardized test performance: An intervention to reduce the effects of stereotype threat. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24, 645-662.

O’Brien, L. T., Crandall, C. S. (2003). Stereotype threat and arousal: Effects on women’s math performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 782-789.

Steele, C. M. (1999, August). Thin: ice: “Stereotype threat” and black college students. The Atlantic Monthly, 44-54.

Wicherts, J. M., Dolan, C. V., Hessen, D. J. (2005). Stereotype threat and group differences in test performance: A question of measurement invariance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 696-716.