Difference between men and women: It's all in the brain

[Alexander's Horse]

Lots of scientific references for the lazy

Gender Differences in Cognitive Functioning: a Literature Review
Toni Bush (Pacific Sports Entertainment)


Introduction


Several studies have examined differences in cognitive functioning between the genders (Eagly, 1978; Wright, 1975; and Darley & Smith, 1995). Each has presented a different definition of cognitive functioning, which has made comparison between studies difficult. For example, Eagly (1978) cites the ability to be influenced, and the ability to conform as factors of cognitive functioning. In contrast, Wright (1975) makes reference to females' general self confidence, information processing confidence, and topical opinion leader ability as cognitive responses. Additionally, there are several studies which define cognitive functioning as the ability to perform cognitive processing tasks (Burstein, Bank, & Jarvik, 1980; Meyers-Levy, 1989; McGuiness & Pribram, 1979; and Darley & Smith, 1995).



Due to this definitional difficulty it has been argued that no real difference in cognitive functioning exists between the genders (Block, 1976). A stable definition of cognitive functioning needs, therefore, to be established in order to ascertain any differences in cognitive functioning between males and females. In this paper, the definition of cognitive functioning which is used will be "the process whereby the capacity to make accurate categorisations is met with the ability to evaluate outcomes or make accurate decisions" (McGuiness & Pribram, 1979, p.38).



This definition concurs with several recent studies of the way males and females process information. the majority of this literature supports the concept that males and females differ in the strategies they use to process information. Known as the selectivity model, it is hypothesised that males are selective processors while females are more likely to engage in a comprehensive processing strategy (Meyers-Levy, 1989). This paper examines the evidence for gender differences in cognitive functioning and discusses some explanations of the causes of any such differences.

[monolith94]

"nope, it's science, confirmed by experiment."

Well, of course, the basis is firmly scientifically proven. So were Darwin's theories, but they were taken to an extreme and exploited for colonial convenience, just like this science will be used to provide our society with 'easy' answers.

[Mr. Harley]

I think though a lot of you are missing Smiley's point from earlier. Is the variation we are talking about between the sexes greater than the natural variation between individuals of the same sex? If the individual variation is greater, my answer to all this info is that it's nice, but not that earth shaking.

Even if the variation is substantial (whatever we agree "substantial" means), there's another problem, alluded to by one of the earlier posters though I suspect he didn't realize it. The mammalian brain plus a very large meteor impact is why we are in charge. The mammalian brain is very adaptable, the human brain extremely so.

During the early developement of a child the brain cells essentially compete for space on the surface of the cerebral cortex (it's much more complex than that, if there are any neurobioligists reading this who can put it better, please do). Those that are not used atrophy and die, while other cells replace them, or they connect up for other uses. That's why a feral human, raised by animals, after a certain point (I've seen people quote the ages of five through seven) can never be taught to speak. What we call the speech centers are occupied/connected up for other functions. People with congenital deafness who reach adulthood from what I understand cannot ever hear, even if they have a cochlear implant and an underlying condition it works for. The circuits/cells are being used for other things.

The point. With environment being such a major determinent in neural developement, how do we isolate for genetics versus environment. Unless you belong to the Mengele school of medicine, this becomes a major problem. Nature versus nurture with a vengeance. I believe we won't have a good answer for at least another generation, if not another century, until not only have we decoded the X and Y chromosone, we know exactly what each gene does and how the proteins produced by each gene react with each and every different type of cell and receptor in the body.

P.S. Alexander's Horse - nice post! I am going to pass it on to my wife, she is getting a Ph.D. in psych. It's nice to see someone cite journals.

[Kropotkin]

This is just great, scientific facts and all...

[Q Classic]

i really like how all of these studies about how men and women are proving that men and women are actually different.

as if one couldn't already tell.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
men can generally concentrate on one task whereas women can multi-task - an example? cooking/kitchen work.

That means you can't walk and chew gum at the same time, Horse?

[Az]

both are tasks that don't require concentration, therefore aren't good examples.

The fact that men and women are different and it's nature and not nurture has been thoroughly proven in many cases, for example cases of boys that are grown as girls, and still, when they grow up, become men.

[st_swithin]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
i really like how all of these studies about how men and women are proving that men and women are actually different.

as if one couldn't already tell.

Sexual dimorphism? What's that? Is that some kind of dinosaur porn?

[monolith94]

I, personally, am terrible at concentrating on one thing, while I love multitasking...

[Q Classic]

yes, st_swithin.

it's just a step below bestiality pr0n, but a step above furry/plushy pr0n.

[Alexander's Horse]

Battle of the Sexes - Part 1
Thursday, 19 September 2002

Are men & women really different?

Program one presents men and women as two separate species with radically different evolutionary agendas. We reveal the vast range of physiological differences between the sexes, in brain, brawn and sexual desire. The film then takes the hormone-fuelled rocket journey to puberty to show that many of the differences between the sexes are pre-programmed. Throughout the programme behavioural experiments illustrate how the gap between the sexes widens from birth to puberty. (full transcript...)


Full Program Transcript:
Narration: When a child is born – the first question is – is it a boy – is it a girl? But does this still matter? Today mean and women compete for the same jobs – enjoy the same pleasures and live similar lives. Equal opportunities and political correctness have made gender difference an old fashioned, irrelevant idea. But is it?

Helen Fisher: The brain is built in certain ways and then the culture moulds it in other ways but you cannot make a boy into a girl and you cannot make a girl into a boy.

Narration: Some of the physical differences cannot be seen. Boys are born with bigger brains, but girls’ brains are more densely packed with neurons. Women are more likely to be right-handed, but men have longer forearms. Men have a better sense of sight, but women have a better sense of smell. And women live longer. Many of these physical differences are relics of our ancestral past. Once they helped us to survive – now they are an encumbrance.

Biology is not our destiny – but it affects everything we do. To find out how it shapes us we picked two random teenagers who are twins in time. Alex Riley grew up in Los Angeles, and London is the home of Aaron Providence. They are both on the verge of their fourteenth birthday, and they have never met. But they have one thing in common – they are exactly the same age.


Aaron Providence: I’m Aaron Providence. I’d like to be a pilot or the RAF, or anything to do with planes.

Alexandra Riley: My name is Alexandra Lo Riley. I like to go to movies and go shopping and I really like going shopping.

Narration: They may be twins in time, but as members of the opposite sex – there’s more than the Atlantic Ocean that separates them. These differences between Aaron and Alex began before they were children – even before they were babies. In fact they began right at the moment of their conception. By the law of averages, it is more likely that Aaron and Alex would both have been conceived as boys. To find out why we must look at their fathers’ sperm. Every sperm swimming up into the womb carries a sex chromosome. X for girls and Y for boys.

Though the foetuses in their womb are different sexes, for the first six weeks of life every embryo looks exactly the same. They are - by default - female. Then, within the space of a few hours – an extraordinary thing happens.

In amongst the mass of DNA that has been supplied by the Y chromosome – there is one gene called SRY. This releases a protein that binds with other strands of DNA – changing their shape and forcing them to follow suit. Soon this protein fills every cell in the body, initiating the growth of the testes. And the testes produce testosterone – which within hours pulses through the foetus, imposing itself on the developing brain. The SRY gene contains the essence of maleness. This is the defining moment in the creation of two sexes.

Narration: When a baby enters the world, their chances of survival depend on whether they are a boy or a girl.

There is some evidence to suggest that at birth the female is more mature than the male. Why this is it’s not clear. Perhaps the testosterone has a slowing down effect that it produces greater muscle bulk but not necessarily greater neuronal development.

In any case many parents and paediatricians are well aware of the fact that baby girls seem a little more alert, a little brighter on average than baby boys who seem just a little bit more lost and vague when they’re born.

At birth both boys’ and girls’ brains are only a quarter of their final weight. In the first six months they develop literally millions of new connections. And by then they begin to show signs of behaving differently. How much of this early behaviour is learned, and how much is intuitive?

Michael Lewis: We have to get away from the idea of nature versus nurture, there’s no such thing in the biological world.

Narration: Professor Michael Lewis has spent the last thirty years watching boys and girls at play. Using a one way mirror, he has observed clear differences in the way one year olds behave.

Michael Lewis: We have to reason to believe that the girl child and the boy child are biologically designed to respond differently to frustrations.

Narration: In a case study using over two hundred children – he tests what happens when infants are separated from their mothers.

Michael Lewis: The boy child attempts in a more solitary fashion to overcome the barrier by pushing it down. The girl child attempts to overcome barriers by essentially calling on others to help her. There are different strategies which we suspect have biological consequences.

Narration: Is oestrogen and testosterone experienced in the womb responsible for this behaviour? Lewis believes that it is. He has also identified a significant emotional difference amongst three year olds.

Woman: Here, you can have her.

Boy: The doll’s arm fell off.

Woman: You wanna fix her?

Boy: You want me to help you?

Michael Lewis: He’s not trying to repair it. It’s not his fault. Whereas the girl tried to repair it. She saw it as something she was responsible for.

Woman: The doll’s arm fell off.

Michael Lewis: He is not responsible.

Narration: But are the fairer sex really more sympathetic? To find out an 8 year old was left alone in a busy street and filmed with secret cameras.

Woman: Are you alright love?

Child: Yes.

Michael Lewis: Females overwhelmingly show more empathic behaviour than males do. And we believe this empathic behaviour are tied to the fact that girls and women are more likely than boys and men to focus on themselves in order to understand the emotions of others.

Woman: Are you alright? Is somebody looking after you?

Child: Yes.

Woman: Oh, alright.

Narration: Would the drastic measure of a pair of handcuffs finally provoke a response from the men?

Man: Who’s done that?

Child: These are pretend ones.

Man: Oh, right. OK.

Narration: There is a chemical reason for empathic behaviour in women. Women produce more Oxytocin, which is a brain chemical stimulated by childbirth. Oxytocin is designed to help mothers nurture their offspring, and it also gives women a greater ability to empathise with others. Why do men not share this natural ability?

Narration: To see whether there is anything in the boy and girl stereotypes, a series of controlled tests were devised. Fifty children from the ages of six to 12 pitted their wits against each other. In the first test 12 year olds were asked to write down as many words they could think of beginning with B. The girls averaged 34 words – the boys 25.

Helen Fisher: By age 12 a girl is better at verbal memory at written pros and reading comprehension and around the world on tests of verbal ability at basic articulation, finding the right word rapidly women excel.

Narration: If women have inherited a greater ability at language, what about the precise manipulation of objects? Are girls more careful than boys? Our six year olds are about to find out. One of the reasons boys find this more difficult is because they have less patience than girls. And this also has a biological root.

Sebastian Kraemer: Testosterone is one of the most complicated hormones. Certainly it creates an increase in physical strength and drive. And little boys who have an awful lot of energy who are required to sit still in classrooms are actually just going to become frustrated, hyperactive and inattentive and that’s one of the problems that we have to deal with.

Narration: Concrete evidence for the effects of this sex hormone on behaviour is seen in children with a very rare condition named CAH Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia.

While she was developing in the womb, Alexandra Lobb, like all girls produced small amounts of testosterone from her adrenal glands. Unfortunately, these glands were overactive, flooding her developing brain and leaving her with an ambiguous reproductive system.

Alison Lobb: She’s been through long spells, spells where she’s being boisterous, refuses to wear a dress, she’s always off outside, disappearing up a tree, stuck at the bottom of a ditch.

Melissa Hines: The kind of girls with CAH on the average are more like boys in their toy choices. They also, interestingly, like to play with boys more than other girls do, so girls in general, only about ten percent of their favourite playmates would be boys, whereas CAH girls, about fifty percent of their playmates are boys and fifty percent girls.

Narration: CAH girls provide clear evidence that testosterone experienced before birth dramatically affects behaviour. And this sex hormone also seems to spark an interest in mechanical things.

Sebastian Kraemer: So there’s a curious gender division here that boys seem to be encouraged to find out how things work and girls are encouraged to find out how people work.

Narration: The girls may be able to build a tower, but, can they draw a bicycle? We asked twenty twelve year olds to give it a try. The results were surprising. Even the girls who rode bicycles were unable to draw them. The boys seemed to have a natural advantage.

Helen Fisher: When testosterone floods the male brain at puberty men become distinctly better at geometry and at mechanical drawing and all kinds of engineering skills.

Narration: The male brain becomes more specialised as it develops in the womb. As the brain grows oestrogen helps the nerve cells connect together. This occurs in the male and female brain, but as females have higher levels of oestrogen their nerve cells are better connected. Also, the isthmus – a bridge that unites either side of the brain – is 10% thicker in women than in men. The female’s brain is simply better connected, which is why girls find it easier to absorb information simultaneously.

They can see the bigger picture, but find it difficult to focus on one object alone – even if it is a $50 note. In this test the boys – with more compartmentalised brains – caught six notes – the girls caught none.

Narration: Perhaps the most unexplained relic from our ancestral past is the fact that girls just can’t throw. Or can they?

Sebastian Kraemer: Every boy will have fun imitating a girl not being able to throw a cricket ball. The girl and her mother will say well that’s because she’s not had any practice, but there does seem to be a physiological difference between boys and girls when it comes to chucking things.

Narration: We asked six hundred children from the age of 12 to 18 to put this old cliché to the test. The boys are throwing red beanbags, the girls yellow. Amongst the eleven year olds – the boys were already ahead of the girls. And as the children get older, this difference becomes more and more pronounced. Why does it happen? Somehow, boys intuitively lock their wrists as they throw an object whereas girls don’t. As boys get older and their forearms grow longer, they just get better and better at it. With a few exceptions the girls stay the same.

Interviewer: Do you like playing with boys?

Child: No.

Interviewer: Why not?

Child: Cause they’re too rough.

Boy: Every girl I know screams.

Girl 1: They do not.

Girl 2: Boys are rough. They can handle – if they get hurt – they can handle it. But girls can’t. They’re just little weaklings.

Girl 3: You’re a girl, Kirst.

Narration: Until the age of eleven, boys and girls have low levels of sex hormones in their bodies – and for this reason they have stayed the same shape. But their brains – which are the heaviest of all primates, have been constantly learning – preparing them for adulthood. What has this experience taught them about the opposite sex?

To find out a group of five year olds were asked to approach a girl in their class. They were told to stop as close to her as they felt comfortable. The same was then asked of nine year olds. Then it was the twelve year olds turn.

So why do boys become more wary of girls as they grow up? Are they becoming more aware of themselves – or are they gradually becoming less comfortable with the opposite sex? It has nothing to do with biology, it’s all down to their experience of life. But once puberty starts – all this will change.

Adolescence is when the dreams of youth begin to become a reality. Also it is the first time since birth that the sex hormones begin to increase. As reproducing animals – boys and girls could not be more different. With every ejaculation a boy produces enough sperm to inseminate all the women in America – twice. For a girl the opposite is true: she was born with three million eggs, but at puberty only 400,000 are left. And she will ovulate a mere 450 of these during her lifetime.

1st Boy: We’ll start getting more hair on our bodies.

2nd Boy: And it’s going to develop bigger and expand. And things will grow bigger.

Girl: They start growing angry like my brother – he’s going to be fifteen soon – he’s gone all mad he has. He doesn’t even want to go to school.

Narration: The sex hormones not only change their bodies – they also change behaviour.

Harvey Providence: He always does what he wants to do.

Tracy Batchelor: Yea. He’s very – he’s very – what’s the word?

Harvey Providence: He’s very hard to make him do something he doesn’t want to do.

Aaron Providence: If I want to go out and my mum says no, then like I can do it ‘cause I guess she can’t stop me.

Beverly Riley: She’s much more interested in how she looks, her hair has to be perfect.

Alex Riley: I guess like there’s maybe two sides to me. Like, I love to go shopping and go to the beach and things like that. But then the other side of me – like just getting dirty, and just sometimes I wanna kick a ball really hard. Just to kind of get it out.

Beverly Riley: If she does reject us I’ll be very disappointed. It hasn’t happened yet so I’m hoping that it won’t happen. I’m just not ready for her to grow up too soon.

Narration: Alex Riley is 14. She has decided to celebrate her birthday by inviting her friends to a pyjama party. The trigger for a girl entering puberty is her weight. As soon as she reaches the magical 50 kilos her body produces oestrogen – and she experiences her first period. Oestrogen slows down her metabolism, and deposits a thin layer of fat all over her body. It changes her body shape, floods her brain and reinforces every female attribute. Girls become more sympathetic, socially active, and most of all – they communicate.

When boys enter puberty testosterone has the opposite effect. The last time it reached such levels was in their mother’s womb. Now it broadens their shoulders, increases strength and creates a desire for risk taking and excitement. Perhaps this has influenced Aaron’s birthday outing. He has decided to play Quasar.

Narration: After the high point of Quasar comes Aaron’s birthday party. It is a moment he has been dreading – as Tracy has made him a cake.

Tracy Batchelor: You can’t have a birthday without a cake. You have to have a birthday cake. You can’t not have a birthday cake. Nobody has to sing happy birthday if they don’t want. They can just shake your hand and say “well done Aaron, you’re fourteen now.

Helen Fisher: Men tend to be less expressively emotional than women. Men tend to hide their feelings except for real anger and I think that this is because the male brain is more compartmentalised. The two sides of the male brain are not as well connected and we’re beginning to think that even some of the parts within the erm each hemisphere are not as well connected in men enabling them to contain their emotions.

Aaron Providence: I prefer hanging in a group with loads of boys.

Tracy Batchelor: Right who wants the first bit?

Sebastian Kraemer: A boy in full testosterone flood – he will be attracted towards a girl but he won’t have the skill to actually find out how she feels. So she won’t, he won’t be able to, able to talk to her terribly well in an ordinary good enough way whereas she is quite good as seeing how he feels, she might see that he’s actually quite nervous, but he may not notice that she’s nervous. So we have a problem there of social skills of understanding other minds.

Girls can flourish as socially skilled people. Their friendships are very intense and as everyone knows girls’ friendships are like little marriages. They have dreadful rows and then they make up again. So girls already have much more practice in engaging in deep personal relationships which is a prelude to the relationships that they have to have as adults – with their sexual partners.

Narration: As boys and girls reach maturity they are as different from each other as they have ever been.

Now they face a new challenge – how to attract – and understand each other.

And that will take them the rest of their lives.

(back to top...)



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[Alexander's Horse]

Battle of the Sexes - Part 2
Are men & women really different?

Narration: Imagine being a member of the opposite sex. For most of us it's hard to do. We act differently. We see differently. We even pee differently! Despite the pressures for a cease-fire, we remain hostages to our hormones. The male and female of the species are as divided now as they've ever been. So far it's been a turbulent journey from embryo to adolescence. Now the Battle of the Sexes intensifies as the hormonal cascade continues into adulthood….

It reaches its climax with the act of sex itself. Men and women may attract each other like magnets ….But their chemistry is very different. And even after these powerful forces subside, male and female bodies are the product of a lifetime of being soaked in sex hormones.

MAN: Men want Delia Smith in the kitchen and Pamela Anderson in the bedroom.

TEENAGE BOY: We understand what we want from women but we don't understand anything about them really.

TEENAGE GIRL: They are a different species I think. They really don't understand girls.


HELEN FISHER: People have probably wondered why there really are two sexes. Why we bother to go find another type that is different from us and mate and breed given the amount of energy and time that it takes to do that. But from a Darwinian prospective it's absolutely essential each one of us needs to create variety in our genetic erm offspring so that, so that in case there is some erm enormous environmental change some of your infants will live.

Narration: This genetic variety boosts the strength of each new generation… ensuring evolutionary success. What draws one individual to another in this vital gene shuffling remains one of life's impenetrable secrets… But once a bond is formed, the biology of sexual reproduction depends on some astonishing contrasts between the way men and women produce sex cells.

A female produces sex cells long before she has even left her mother's womb. Every girl is born with enough eggs in her ovaries to last her all her fertile life. At birth she starts off with around two million - each one a unique cocktail of her parent's genes. Gradually they die off until by puberty there are about 400,000 eggs left. The supply will continue to dwindle until by menopause there will only be a few remaining.

A woman's egg is the largest cell in her body - it has to be - to provide all the nutrients the embryo will need in its first few days of life. Even from the moment of conception, the cell from the female is the nurturer.

In contrast, a boy begins life with no sex cells at all. Only during puberty does he begin manufacturing sperm cells. From that point on, with each beat of his heart a man will produce 1000 sperm. The male strategy is to produce billions and billions of uniquely coded sex cells in the testes. Half are male, half female. During an average life span, sperm will outnumber eggs by at least a million to one.

Some people believe this vast imbalance between sperm and egg may explain why men and women have such different attitudes to sex. Sexual attraction is triggered by many mysterious forces. Some are going on all around us - right under our noses….!

In this Miami singles bar, the air is awash with molecules of lust! Men and women have their own distinctive scent. Our bodies secrete chemicals called pheromones. We may not be aware of them. But when they ooze out of our skin and waft into the air they have an electrifying effect on the opposite sex.

A woman's natural pheromones boost men's testosterone levels by 150%, which makes them feel aroused. Some male pheromones have been shown to have a similar effect on women. To test the effect of pheromones, a pair of identical twin sisters agreed to take part in an experiment. They will pretend to be the same person to check the pulling power of a synthetic pheromone scent. While Marita hides in the loos, her sister Mimina, who is wearing no scent, ventures into the bar. During the hour Mimina spends in the bar only one man shows any interest.

MAN: Where are you from?

MIMINA: Well originally from Venezuela.

MAN: Venezuela?

MIMINA: But I live here in Miami.

Narration: Her sister Marita dabs on the pheromone scent and then tries her luck.

MIMINA: You're going to drive everybody crazy down there.

Narration: Even though the men in the bar assume it is still Mimina, they are now showing a lot more interest in the twin doused with pheromones. The twins perform an identical routine, yet Marita gets approached many more times than her sister.

MAN: I've got to tell you that you look great.

MARITA: Hi

MAN: How are you?

Narration: Amongst heterosexuals interest in the opposite sex is mutual but how different are their biological responses to sexual attraction?

HELEN FISHER: Both men and women are interested in sex. The most recent data in America indicate that 54% of men think about sex every day and that 19% of women think about sex every day.
Both of the sexes er have a high sex drive I think erm but they often express it differently.
They're turned on by different things.

Narration: Arousal by the opposite sex triggers a sequence of events in the body…
The pupils dilate, blood flow increases, the lips swell and the body sweats. The heart starts to race as blood is pumped faster and faster round the body…

Messages from the brain travel along the parasympathetic nerves to the groin. They have a dramatic effect on the muscles controlling the flow of blood in both the penis and the vagina. The muscles of the arteries relax. The muscles of the veins contract. There's no way for the blood to leave and the pressure builds up.

Recent research has revealed some extraordinary findings about the physiology of sex. Left to itself the parasympathetic nervous system would leave men and women in a permanent state of sexual arousal. The complimentary sympathetic nervous system acts as sexual brakes. Even when the penis resting, the brain is working to keep it limp. The same is happening in women but it's just not as visible.
But which sex comes out on top?

HELEN FISHER: Both the sexes get intense sexual pleasure but in the bedroom women are the better performers. They tend to be able to have more orgasms, multiple orgasms and when they do have an orgasm they tend to have more contractions. Men have three of four of the initial very strong orgasms, contractions. Women have between 5 and 6 of those very strong initial contractions and then women's contractions spread out for a longer period of time. So women can have more contractions per orgasm and more orgasms per sexual bout.

Narration: One of the most gruelling tests of physical stamina is New York's annual swimming race around Manhattan Island. Every year a group of well-greased contestants prepare to enter the cold waters of the Hudson River to begin a body-numbing 28 and a half mile swim. Two of the favourites are Connor Gunn and Morgan Filler.

MORGAN FILLER: I'll be looking for your goggles. I'll be looking for your face.

CONOR GUNN: I'll be looking for your feet.

Narration: Because of its unusual demands this competition has become a Battle of the Sexes. In this harsh test of physical endurance how do the smaller, less muscular female competitors stand a chance?

In this contest women's extra body fat gives them two unique advantages: it insulates them from the cold water and it makes them more buoyant. Although women have less overall strength than men, they have much more long term stamina. Morgan finished the race in just over 8 hours. Connor came in 50 minutes later in 13th place. Women also do much better than men at running double marathons. In any event that requires long distance stamina women have the advantage…

Narration: The car is the scene of one of the most long running battles of the sexes. The male's dilemma: whether to drive or navigate. He thinks he can do both better, but can he? Are male brains better adapted for this sort of task?

WOMAN: I do know where I'm going.

MAN: Do a left 'cause otherwise you'll get stuck in all that roadworks.

WOMAN: I mean I don't have a sense of direction and my mother doesn't have a sense of direction.

WOMAN: Men are very, very direct and they will tell you the right way to get there.

WOMAN: When I have a map and I say 'turn here' he says 'are you sure?'.

MAN: You're 'spose to be navigating anyway. Every time we do a left you turn the book round.

Narration: So are men better navigators than women? A study at Westpoint Military Academy, where the US Army trains its officers, may provide some answers. Scientist Jon Malinowski has studied 3,000 Wes5tpoint cadets to see whether men or women are more likely to get lost on the battlefield.

JON MALINOWSKI: In the real world environment, spatial ability generally refers to navigation ability, the ability to way-find, the ability to retrace a route that you've maybe taken only once, the ability to estimate what direction you've come from and how far you've come.

SOLDIER: On your feet . Alright. Get back down there. Let's go.

Narration: The cadets must find at least 8 out of 10 way points scattered over a confusing terrain. They've got up to 4 hours to complete the course, but the quicker they check off each way point the higher their score. Female cadet, Kristen, appears nervous and apprehensive. Her male colleague, Matthew, is confident and sets off immediately. Malinowski has found that men and women tend to tackle the course in very different ways. Men tend to navigate within a larger reference system. They use things such as the cardinal directions, north, south, east, west; or they use a far-off object such as the sun or a mountain to navigate. Whereas people suggest that, that women may use more of a route strategy, where they go from point to point to point and don't really have a complete idea of where they are in a larger frame of reference. One by one, Kristen ticks off the way points. In his haste to complete the course Matthew has suffered a slight setback.

SOLDIER: Alright, how d'you do?

KRISTEN: I got all ten.

SOLDIER: Alright, ten over ten. Outstanding. Outstanding.

Narration: So how did our two cadets fare?

SOLDIER: Motivated.

Narration: Kristen took her time and got 10 out of the 10 points. Matthew completed the course in a faster time but in his rush to come first was disqualified. (Typical man!)

MATTHEW MOGENSON: I lost my card but it was good until I lost it.
If it hadn't been for that I probably would have done well because I did well in the practice.

KRISTEN VAHLE: I just knew that if I took my time and was careful about where I was going and looked at features and everything that I would be fine.

Narration: The female beat the male this time, but this is rare. Malinowski's research shows that in general men tend to excel at tasks that involve spatial intelligence - such as navigation and three-dimensional problem solving; whereas women have a much stronger capacity for languages and communication. So why do male and female brains function in such different ways?

Raquel and Ruben Gur are neuroscientists. They are interested in how men and women USE their brains to perform a range of activities. They also happen to be married to each other, so like most couples they have a few leads. In particular, they want to know why men and women react so differently to emotion. To investigate what happens in the brain when processing emotion they invited student volunteers to their MRI scanner.

RUBEN GUR: Why don't you climb up and sit on the bed.

Narration: They wanted to see which parts of the brain are active when men and women think about emotions. The volunteers are shown photographs of faces which depict various moods. They are then asked questions about the emotions expressed, while their brains are scanned. The initial findings - that women are better at recognising emotions than men.

RUBEN GUR: A woman is able to recognise the emotion on a face, even before she would recognise that it's a face, rather than something else. A man first has to make sure it's a face and then starts figuring out what the emotion is.

Narration: But the real breakthrough was the discovery of how little brain power women use to process emotion. The coloured areas show the small amount of female brain area being used; whereas men need to use much more to deal with the same information.

RUBEN GUR: Well as you can see there is much more - in men there is much more activation in the back of the brain. It's the part that deals with processing the sensory information that is in the fact.
And they also show a lot more activation in the emotion brain. So they have to really look into the detail of the face to figure out the emotion.

Narration: The volunteers were also given a computer test on emotions. Women's brains have many more neural connections between the two hemispheres. Men's brains are less well connected, so each hemisphere tends to be more specialised. To express emotions both hemispheres are needed simultaneously. Emotional thought starts in the limbic system and is processed on the right hand side of the brain, while speech is in the left. The poorer information flow between hemispheres in the male brain means that a man must use more of his brain to interpret emotions.

So it really is biologically harder for a man to express emotions - whereas women are better wired to convert feelings into words. This difference in wiring also explains how men and women react to multi-tasking. It's a source of domestic conflict in most homes - women have no trouble tackling many things at once, whereas men have to focus on one thing at a time.

To demonstrate the point four women and four men were given a list of jobs to complete in four minutes. They had to make tea, answer the phone, pick up messages, receive a package, type a letter, photocopy papers and microwave some food. So how will the two sexes cope?

From the start the difference is obvious. Sheila leaves the copier working while she answers the phone; whereas Mohammed doesn't. Similarly, Maria leaves the copier going as she answers the door whereas Alex stops what he's doing. On average men only achieved four of the eight tasks whereas all of the women managed all of the tasks.

GIRL: I knew once I boiled the kettle I could start doing something else, and the photocopier would take a few seconds to do three pages, so I knew I could start something else.

BOY: Really and truly I think it's better just to do one thing at a time, but I was thinking of everything at the same time and it was confusing me.

Narration: Women can carry out parallel tasks because both sides of the brain act simultaneously, whereas men with their poorly connected brains are doomed to complete one activity before starting the next.

SEBASTIAN KRAEMER: The differences that we are familiar with are sometimes called the spotlight mind of the male and the floodlight mind of the female are probably largely socially determined. Women have to learn multitasking because in general they do multitask. Me…most women become mothers and they also work and even if they don't work, running a family is the equivalent of running a small business. Most women are by nature businesswomen.

Narration: The final battle of the sexes begins with a tide change. The flood of hormones rushing round the body starts to subside and for women it's a critical time.

WOMAN: It felt like a new lease of life.

WOMAN: In fact I felt more sexy. I put on a black night gown and I didn't have to worry about being pregnant again.

Narration: When the menopause begins its effects extend throughout the female body. The organ responsible is the hypothalamus which sits at the base of the brain. This great motor of the menstrual cycle starts to sputter and alters the balance of hormones.

Lis Oakham is 50 and is going through the 'change of life'. The fluctuating hormone levels make egg production erratic until eventually her regular cycle shudders to a complete halt. Her supply of eggs is over.

LIS OAKHAM: Well I suppose I realised it was the menopause because I started to have erm, periods that weren't coming quite so regularly.

Narration: At night Liz often suffers from hot flushes, a common symptom of menopause. As her oestrogen levels dip, the reaction of the brain is to fool the body into thinking it is overheating. To get rid of this excess warmth, the blood vessels near the surface of the skin dilate, causing a hot flush… But hot flushes are a relatively minor problem.

The hormonal turmoil has other effects. Women's muscles become weaker as they gradually turn into fat. Bones become thinner and more fragile, because oestrogen normally stimulates bone cell growth and repair. During menopause a woman loses about 20% of her strength, which makes her weaker skeleton even more prone to injury.

For men different fate awaits: they tend to die much younger. By the age of 85 there are three women for every man. Women appear to be better survivors all through life. They have better immune systems to fight off illnesses. More men die in accidents and wars… More men commit suicide… In fact men die younger of most diseases… Biology seems to conspire against them.

SEBASTIAN KRAEMER: There are two explanations which are given for the shorter life of the male. Testosterone is not good for your long term health and it is one argument and the other is that the females body is actually more .. the body cells are more resilient.

WOMAN: Oh I had two die on me already besides my husbands. I kill them off it looks like. A man died sitting next to me. He just keeled over and died. And that was really a romance. And the man - I just lost this other man two months ago.

Narration: We now know that women's genetic make-up makes them stronger contenders throughout life. Inside the cell of every male and female is a nucleus which contains the code that determines when and how that cell will die. Within each nucleus are the 23 pairs of chromosomes which store this vital information.

However in one set of chromosomes there's a crucial difference between men and women. The X chromosome with its 1000 genes carries a lot of genetic information. Men have only one copy, whereas women have two, and this gives women an important advantage. If there's a coding error on one X chromosome, the other can step in to avoid the potentially fatal consequences of a damaged gene.

SEBASTIAN KRAEMER: Females might be more resilient because they have two complete chromosomes and that they have what's known at 'mazaitism' that's to say some of the cells in the female body use one of the Xs and some of the other cells use the other X. So in a sense they can cover their losses by using one or other of the X chromosomes. This seems to confer some resilience on the female over her life-span.

Narration: From the evolutionary point of view a man is expendable once he's passed on his seed. He does not need to live very long to guarantee the survival of his genes. But if his children are to survive, it's vital their mother and grandmother live long enough to nurture and support them.

HELEN FISHER: Men are the expendable sex because women are the ones that rear the babies and because they're so expendable they have been built to tolerate risk and to go and seek risk and to seek danger and to erm and those are the things that you need in order to protect and provide for the group.

Narration: There are fundamental biological differences which will always separate men from women. There's no outright winner in the Battle of the Sexes. Both sides will continue to believe they are the superior form of the species. Yet no one can deny that life would be a lot duller without the opposite sex.

[Q Classic]

nothing holds a candle to dave barry's explanation of the difference.

you can find it in "dave barry's complete guide to guys", and explains that while a woman will go home and agonize over every aspect of a date, a guy will go home, sit in front of the telly, and eat a bag of doritos.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Azazel
both are tasks that don't require concentration, therefore aren't good examples.

This just proves geeks have no humour. Or at least some of them

Originally posted by Azazel
The fact that men and women are different and it's nature and not nurture has been thoroughly proven in many cases, for example cases of boys that are grown as girls, and still, when they grow up, become men.

The thing is men and women are not values of a binary variable. The fact is there is a broad spectrum and most persons are a mix of the two. At least psychologically speaking.

[Q Classic]

lair!

women == yin == dark == 0
men == yang == light == 1