Abstract
Previous research has shown that females consistently outperform males in exact arithmetic, perhaps due to the former’s advantage in language processing. Much less is known about gender difference in approximate arithmetic. Given that approximate arithmetic is closely associated with visuospatial processing, which shows a male advantage we hypothesized that males would perform better than females in approximate arithmetic. In two experiments (496 children in Experiment 1 and 554 college students in Experiment 2), we found that males showed better performance in approximate arithmetic, which was accounted for by gender differences in spatial ability.
Highlights
IntroductionGender differences in mathematical performance have been an important area of research because researchers and policy makers alike have been concerned about the under representation of women in mathematics-intensive fields or Science, Technology, Engineer, and Mathematics (STEM; Hyde and Linn, 2006; Halpern et al, 2007; Guiso et al, 2008; Hyde et al, 2008; Ceci et al, 2009; Nosek et al, 2009; Else-Quest et al, 2010; Shen, 2013)
We further examined whether mental rotation could explain the gender differences in other tasks
The results showed that these gender differences could not be explained by mental rotation: including gender difference in word semantic processing, b = 3.76, t(485.73) = 5.82, p < 0.0001; and in Raven’s Progressive Matrices: b = 1.57, t(482.95) = 3.05, p = 0.002
Summary
Gender differences in mathematical performance have been an important area of research because researchers and policy makers alike have been concerned about the under representation of women in mathematics-intensive fields or Science, Technology, Engineer, and Mathematics (STEM; Hyde and Linn, 2006; Halpern et al, 2007; Guiso et al, 2008; Hyde et al, 2008; Ceci et al, 2009; Nosek et al, 2009; Else-Quest et al, 2010; Shen, 2013). There is evidence that at an early age females show better performance in arithmetic than do males (Linn and Hyde, 1989; Wei et al, 2012). As Wei et al (2012) found, after controlling for verbal ability, gender differences in mathematical performance disappeared
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
