Sex Differences in Visuospatial Processing

Abstract

One of the few cognitive areas in which sex differences can be found is in visuospatial processing abilities. The different abilities show different degrees of sex differences, generally favoring men over women. For example, the largest effects for men are reported on mental rotation tasks, particularly those using three-dimensional shapes. Mental folding, field independence, and most of the visuospatial working memory literature also show male advantages, but lower than for mental rotation. Notably, the visual working memory task known as Object Location Memory counteracts this trend and shows small differences favoring women over men. To explain these sex differences, we describe two sociocultural (nurture) and one biological (nature) causes. The visuospatial experience with sports, hobbies, toys, and videogames is a sociocultural explanation for the unfavorable results of women in visuospatial tests. Another sociocultural cause that shows consistent negative findings for women is stereotype threat, in both implicit and explicit forms. In contrast, hormones, in both prenatal and adult samples, provide biological explanations that may be less conclusive. Independent of these explanations, we argue that visuospatial training could be an effective strategy to diminish the sex gap unfavorable to women, since many different spatial training activities have shown encouraging effects. We finish this chapter by providing instructional implications for health and natural sciences, plus recommendations for future research directions.