Ireland [UK], Jan 27 : According to a recent study report, researchers found that there is no male advantage in mental rotation abilities associated with spatial cognition competences, so men and women perform the task differently but achieve the same result.
The study published in Nature Scientific Reports has shown that both men and women frequently employed different gaze strategies during the cognitive tests to get to the correct answer.
Men are not better than women at spatial cognition such as map reading.
Dr. Mark Campbell mentioned that the skill of spatial cognition or our ability to navigate our environment has been the battleground for almost forty years for researchers claiming that males have a distinct performance advantage on tests of spatial cognition, notably the mental rotations test.
Campbell further explained and said: "Better performance on these tests is strongly associated with higher IQ and better performance in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) subjects in schools and colleges."
"So males are better than females? Well no, actually. Our study found that there is no male advantage in mental rotation abilities. By lengthening the time allowed to complete the test, the male performance advantage diminished entirely suggesting that the so-called sex difference in mental rotation is simply not there or may be explained by other factors," Dr. Adam Toth added.
One hundred University of Limerick (UL) undergraduate and postgraduate level psychology and sports science students volunteered to take part in the test carried out by the Lero researchers. Forty-seven men and fifty-three women were in good health and had an average age of twenty-three.