Evolution of Sex Differences in Math: BBS Call for Commentators
Stevan Harnad (harnad@ECS.SOTON.AC.UK)
Sat, 17 Jun 1995 16:42:54 +0100
************** SOCIETY FOR PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY ***************
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Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article on:
SEX DIFFERENCES IN MATHEMATICAL ABILITY by David C. Geary
This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain
Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing
Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in
the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences.
Commentators must be current BBS Associates or nominated by a current
BBS Associate. To be considered as a commentator for this article, to
suggest other appropriate commentators, or for information about how to
become a BBS Associate, please send email to:
bbs@ecs.soton.ac.uk or write to:
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Department of Psychology
University of Southampton
Highfield, Southampton
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM
http://cogsci.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/bbs.html
gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:70/11/.libraries/.pujournals
ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS
To help us put together a balanced list of commentators, please give
some indication of the aspects of the topic on which you would bring
your areas of expertise to bear if you were selected as a commentator.
An electronic draft of the full text is available for inspection by
anonymous ftp (or gopher or world-wide-web) according to the
instructions that follow after the abstract.
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SEXUAL SELECTION AND SEX DIFFERENCES IN MATHEMATICAL ABILITIES
David C. Geary
Department of Psychology
210 McAlester Hall
University of Missouri at Columbia
Columbia, MO 65211
psycorie@mizzou1.missouri.edu
KEYWORDS: sexual selection, sex differences, mathematical
ability, spatial ability, sex-role stereotypes, social style
ABSTRACT: The principles of sexual selection were used as an
organizing framework for interpreting cross-national patterns of
sex differences in mathematical abilities. Cross-national
studies suggest that there are no sex differences in
biologically primary mathematical abilities, that is, for those
mathematical abilities that are found pan-culturally, in
nonhuman primates, and show moderate heritability estimates.
Sex differences in several biologically secondary mathematical
domains (i.e., those that emerge primarily in school) are found
throughout the industrialized world. In particular, males
consistently outperform females in the solving of mathematical word
problems and in geometry. Sexual selection and any associated
proximate mechanisms (e.g., sex hormones) appear to influence these
sex differences in mathematical performance indirectly. First,
sexual selection appears to have resulted in the greater
elaboration of the neurocognitive systems that support navigation
in 3-dimensional space in males than in females. Knowledge implicit
in these systems appears to reflect an understanding of basic
Euclidean geometry, and thus appears to be one source of the male
advantage in geometry. Males also co-opt these spatial systems in
problem-solving situations more readily than females, which
provides males with an advantage in word problems and geometry.
Moreover, sex differences in social styles and interests, which
also appear to be related, in part, to sexual selection, result in
sex differences in engagement in mathematics-related activities,
which further increases the male advantage in certain mathematical
domains. A model that integrates these biological influences with
sociocultural influences on the sex differences in mathematical
performance is presented.
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To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for
this article, an electronic draft is retrievable by anonymous ftp from
ftp.princeton.edu according to the instructions below (the filename is
bbs.geary). Please do not prepare a commentary on this draft.
Just let us know, after having inspected it, what relevant expertise
you feel you would bring to bear on what aspect of the article.
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These files are also on the World Wide Web and the easiest way to
retrieve them is with Netscape, Mosaic, gopher, archie, veronica, etc.
Here are some of the URLs you can use to get to the BBS Archive:
http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/bbs.html
http://cogsci.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/bbs.html
gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:70/11/.libraries/.pujournals
ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/bbs.geary
ftp://cogsci.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pub/harnad/BBS/bbs.geary
To retrieve a file by ftp from an Internet site, type either:
ftp ftp.princeton.edu
or
ftp 128.112.128.1
When you are asked for your login, type:
anonymous
Enter password as queried (your password is your actual userid:
yourlogin@yourhost.whatever.whatever - be sure to include the "@")
cd /pub/harnad/BBS
To show the available files, type:
ls
Next, retrieve the file you want with (for example):
get bbs.geary
When you have the file(s) you want, type:
quit
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Where the above procedure is not available there are two fileservers:
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
and
bitftp@pucc.bitnet
that will do the transfer for you. To one or the
other of them, send the following one line message:
help
for instructions (which will be similar to the above, but will be in
the form of a series of lines in an email message that ftpmail or
bitftp will then execute for you).
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