Abstract
Sex differences are consistently reported in different visuospatial tasks with men usually performing better in mental rotation tests while women are better on tests for memory of object locations. In the present study, we investigated sex differences in solving jigsaw puzzles in children. In total 22 boys and 24 girls were tested using custom build tablet application representing a jigsaw puzzle consisting of 25 pieces and featuring three different pictures. Girls outperformed boys in solving jigsaw puzzles regardless of the picture. Girls were faster than boys in solving the puzzle, made less incorrect moves with the pieces of the puzzle, and spent less time moving the pieces around the tablet. It appears that the strategy of solving the jigsaw puzzle was the main factor affecting differences in success, as girls tend to solve the puzzle more systematically while boys performed more trial and error attempts, thus having more incorrect moves with the puzzle pieces. Results of this study suggest a very robust sex difference in solving the jigsaw puzzle with girls outperforming boys by a large margin.
Highlights
Sex differences in different cognitive domains are often discussed, both scientifically and in lay public
The main debates are concerning the actual existence of such differences in different tasks, and, whether these differences are biologically predetermined by sex differences in the brain, or are arising due to differences in upbringing between girls and boys
As children tested were aged between 84 months and 96 months, and there was no statistical significance in the mean age of children, we first checked whether there was any correlation between age and performance on the task
Summary
Sex differences in different cognitive domains are often discussed, both scientifically and in lay public. Sex differences in visuospatial abilities are in general acknowledged, with men performing better on mental rotation tests and tests of spatial perception and orientation (Voyer et al, 1995; Halpern et al, 2007; Lippa et al, 2010), while women outperform men in test of memory for object locations (Ecuyer-Dab and Robert, 2004). The origin of these sex differences is not fully understood and different studies suggest different causes. Some studies suggest that sex difference in visuospatial abilities could be
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