Gender Differences in Children’s Arithmetic Performance Are Accounted for by Gender Differences in Language Abilities

Wei Wei,Hao Lu,Xinlin Zhou,Chuansheng Chen,Qi Dong,Hui Zhao

doi:10.1177/0956797611427168

Abstract

Studies have shown that female children, on average, consistently outperform male children in arithmetic. In the research reported here, 1,556 pupils (8 to 11 years of age) from urban and rural regions in the greater Beijing area completed 10 cognitive tasks. Results showed that girls outperformed boys in arithmetic tasks (i.e., simple subtraction, complex multiplication), as well as in numerosity-comparison, number-comparison, number-series-completion, choice reaction time, and word-rhyming tasks. Boys outperformed girls in a mental rotation task. Controlling for scores on the word-rhyming task eliminated gender differences in arithmetic, whereas controlling for scores on numerical-processing tasks (number comparison, numerosity estimation, numerosity comparison, and number-series completion) and general cognitive tasks (choice reaction time, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, and mental rotation) did not. These results suggest that girls’ advantage in arithmetic is likely due to their advantage in language processing.

Highlights

One plausible reason for this advantage is that girls have an early advantage in verbal abilities (e.g., Burman, Bitan, & Booth, 2008; Hyde & Linn, 1988; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974)
We expected that we would find no significant differences in arithmetic performance after controlling for performance on this task
We further examined whether gender differences in word rhyming could explain gender differences in other tasks

Summary

Introduction

One plausible reason for this advantage is that girls have an early advantage in verbal abilities (e.g., Burman, Bitan, & Booth, 2008; Hyde & Linn, 1988; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974). Exact calculation involves more language processing than does approximate calculation (Dehaene et al, 1999). Language processing in arithmetic, it is plausible that girls’ advantage in language processing explains their advantage in arithmetic. We tested this hypothesis in the current study. We examined gender differences in arithmetic performance after statistically controlling for each of the following factors separately: basic numerical processing (including numerosity comparison, numerosity estimation, and number comparison), number-series completion, word rhyming, reaction time, mental rotation, and Raven’s Progressive Matrices. We expected that we would find no significant differences in arithmetic performance after controlling for performance on this task

Methods

Results

Conclusion