Differences between males/females

[ase...@my-deja.com]

Hello.
I got into a discussion with my friend about wether there are any
differenes between males and females in their intelligences.
For example males are better at logic while femals are better with
emotions. Are there any studies on this, and if so does anybody know of
any online papers?

kind regards,

Erik

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[Yan]

Males have been found to have advantage in spatial tasks, quantitative
tasks, and strength, whereas females have advantage in verbal tasks,
perceptual speed & accuracy, and fine motor skills. Females are more
sensitive to auditory information whereas males are more sensitive to
visual information.

Research has also shown that females' brains are less lateralized than
males, therefore males typically have right ear advantage.

BUT REMEMBER, these differences in ability are only slight, and are
absolute i.e. not ALL men are good at spatial tasks; some females could
excel males in them. There is more within-sex variation than between-sex
variation in most cognitive abilities.

[ase...@my-deja.com]

hoey...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Males have been found to have advantage in spatial tasks, quantitative
> tasks, and strength, whereas females have advantage in verbal tasks,
> perceptual speed & accuracy, and fine motor skills. Females are more
> sensitive to auditory information whereas males are more sensitive to
> visual information.
>
> Research has also shown that females' brains are less lateralized than
> males, therefore males typically have right ear advantage.

I am not an English speaking citizen so I don´t really understand that.
What does "lateralized" mean?
"right ear advantage" Is this a simply a say?

Thanks again,

Erik H

[Yan]

Hi Erik,

The brain has 2 hemispheres, a right one and a left one. "Lateralization"
means the unequal representation of particular psychological functions in
the 2 hemispheres i.e. the 2 hemispheres have differences in their function.
The left hemisphere, for example, is dominant for speech and language
ability. Therefore, what I mean by "females' brains are less lateralized" is
that psychological functions are more equally represented in the 2
hemispheres of females' brains.

"Right ear advantage" is not just a saying......as I mentioned above,
language ability is largely controlled by the left hemisphere, and the
pathway for transmitting auditory infomation to the brain is contralateral
i.e. what we hear from our right ear will be sent to the left hemisphere,
and vice versa.Therefore subjects are usually more accurate in reporting
information presented to the RIGHT ear than the left ear (since language
processing occurs in the left hemisphere), and that's what I mean by "right
ear advantage".

[Mark D. Morin]

Yan wrote:

> Hi Erik,
>
> The brain has 2 hemispheres, a right one and a left one. "Lateralization"
> means the unequal representation of particular psychological functions in
> the 2 hemispheres i.e. the 2 hemispheres have differences in their function.
> The left hemisphere, for example, is dominant for speech and language
> ability.

in about 95% of right handed individuals and 75% of lefthanders. The remainder,
we are not always sure where language is localized.

> Therefore, what I mean by "females' brains are less lateralized" is
> that psychological functions are more equally represented in the 2
> hemispheres of females' brains.

The data that I've collected don't support this hypothesis. Then again, I'm
dealing with a clinical population, not randomly selected off the street. The
differences found 20 years ago vis a vis differences in language and
visual/spatial abilities in men and women don't seem to hold up. As a matter of
fact, our norms are not gender specific.

> "Right ear advantage" is not just a saying......as I mentioned above,
> language ability is largely controlled by the left hemisphere, and the
> pathway for transmitting auditory infomation to the brain is contralateral

there's not universal agreement on this. There's evidence that hearing, like
vision, has projections to both hemispheres.

"right ear advantage" in my line of work usually means the expected finding for
right handed individuals on the Dichotic Listening Test.

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[tim]

Erik,

A sound coming form left or right ear doesn't change anything. They both
have different "relays" in the brain and get translated in the same brain
area anyway. Sure, the relays are on different hemispheres, but...
You don't actually "understand" better because it comes from
the right... this is typically Skinner's superstition phenomena! This whole
male-female brain structure,etc. is scientifically unfounded. The only thing
we're sure of are hormones,etc. and social upbringing. There are way too
many counter examples of females thinking just like men and vice-versa while
providing no particular brain structure departure from the norm. Freud has
an explanation, but that's not scientifically founded, so... it's safer to
say we don't know enough to provide any form of judgement. Becareful! Those
kind of assumptions are dangerous and form the basis of sexism and
discrimination! It's a form of legitimation through science that leads to
ideas such as "anyway, it's proven now, men are better at planning ,yada
yada yada" Don't let your intuitions and common sense govern your
judgements. There is more than meets the eye.

P.S.: This got sent to Yan by mistake, sorry

----- Original Message -----
From: Yan <edd...@sprint.ca>
Newsgroups: alt.psychology
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2001 8:33 AM
Subject: Re: Differences between males/females

> Hi Erik,
>
> The brain has 2 hemispheres, a right one and a left one. "Lateralization"
> means the unequal representation of particular psychological functions in
> the 2 hemispheres i.e. the 2 hemispheres have differences in their
function.
> The left hemisphere, for example, is dominant for speech and language

> ability. Therefore, what I mean by "females' brains are less lateralized"

is
> that psychological functions are more equally represented in the 2
> hemispheres of females' brains.
>

> "Right ear advantage" is not just a saying......as I mentioned above,
> language ability is largely controlled by the left hemisphere, and the
> pathway for transmitting auditory infomation to the brain is contralateral

Mark D. Morin <mdm...@PETERHOOD69.earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:3A587BF2...@earthlink.net...