Why are males better at spatial tasks

Spatial ability

It's probably fair to say that we don't spend much time thinking about the way we view the world around us.

But some scientists conduct detailed studies of how accurately we judge space – our spatial abilities – with paper and pencil tests. The Sex ID test included similar tests – the angles, 3D shapes and spot the difference tasks.

Studies show that, on average, men are better than women at mentally rotating pictures of three dimensional objects (the 3D shapes task) or judging the slope of a line (the angles task).

But scientists note that women outperform men at other tasks. For example, women are more likely to spot which of a group of objects has been moved to a new position (the spot the difference task).

It's not fully known why men and women perform differently on spatial tasks.

Studies have concluded that men tend to pay more attention to the way their surroundings are laid out, which may explain why they generally score better on tasks like 3D shapes and angles. Researchers have also found that, on average, men are better at finding compass orientations and rely on mental images of three dimensional spaces to find their way.

Women were more likely to notice landmarks, which could be linked to their higher scores on the spot the difference task. Research has shown that women are more likely to use memorised routes and landmarks to stay on track.

Dr Marcia Collaer, a behavioural neuroscientist at Middlebury College in Vermont, says that the link between the angles task and navigation ability is not backed up with empirical evidence, but it is worth considering.

Modern cavemen

Scientists try to come up with logical explanations for these puzzling results.

One theory is that modern humans are still very similar to their prehistoric ancestors. In early times men spent lots of time hunting in unfamiliar territory where landmarks were less useful. Women, on the other hand, spent more time close to home foraging for food and they may have relied more on landmarks to find their way around.

Testosterone and spatial ability

It's also thought that the male sex hormone testosterone plays a role in spatial ability. One finding that supports this theory is that women with above average levels of testosterone in their body perform better at mental rotation tasks than women with average levels of testosterone.

Most scientists think there's no real difference between men and women when it comes to total intelligence (commonly called IQ). It's just possible that our brains have evolved separately to meet the demands of our environment.

Secrets of the Sexes

A BBC One television series Secrets of the Sexes explores brain sex differences. Find out more about the programmes.

"We're interested in the origins of gender differences in spatial skills because of their potential role in the gender gap we see in math and science fields," says Jillian Lauer, who is set to graduate from Emory in May with a PhD in psychology. (Getty Images)

It is well-established that, on average, men outperform women on a spatial reasoning task known as mental rotation — imagining multi-dimensional objects from different points of view. Men are not, however, born with this advantage, suggests a major meta-analysis by psychologists at Emory University. Instead, males gain a slight advantage in mental-rotation performance during the first years of formal schooling, and this advantage slowly grows with age, tripling in size by the end of adolescence.

The Psychological Bulletin, a journal of the American Psychological Association, is publishing the findings.

“Some researchers have argued that there is an intrinsic gender difference in spatial reasoning — that boys are naturally better at it than girls,” says lead author Jillian Lauer, who is set to graduate from Emory in May with a PhD in psychology. “While our results don’t exclude any possibility that biological influences contribute to the gender gap, they suggest that other factors may be more important in driving the gender difference in spatial skills during childhood.”

Co-authors of the paper include Stella Lourenco, associate professor of psychology at Emory, whose lab specializes in the development of spatial and numerical cognition. Co-author Eukyung Yhang worked on the paper as an Emory undergraduate, funded by the university’s Institute for Quantitative Theory and Methods. Yhang graduated in 2018 and is now at Yale University School of Medicine.

The meta-analysis included 128 studies of gender differences in spatial reasoning, combining statistics on more than 30,000 children and adolescents aged three to 18 years. The authors found no gender difference in mental-rotation skills among preschoolers, but a small male advantage emerged in children between the ages of six and eight.

While differences in verbal and mathematical abilities between men and women tend to be small or non-existent, twice as many men as women are top performers in mental rotation, making it one of the largest gender differences in cognition.

Mental rotation is considered one of the hallmarks of spatial reasoning. “If you’re packing your suitcase and trying to figure out how each item can fit within that space, or you’re building furniture based on a diagram, you’re likely engaged in mental rotation, imagining how different objects can rotate to fit together,” Lauer explains.

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