SEX-TYPING AND COGNITIVE STYLES
Numerous researchers have examined the differences between the sexes in the field of sense perception, using both children and adults as subjects. Although one would expect to find differences between the sexes in preference of sensory modalities, in sensitivity, and in patterns of perceptual organization of various experiences, there is, in fact, little support for such an assumption. Aside from some evidence that females are “more sensitive and more variable in their response to taste and smell cues” (Maccoby and Jacklin), both sexes show remarkable similarities in their preferences and in the level of sensitivity of their sensory modalities. This includes audition (Kagan and Lewis), vision (Friedman and others; Kagan and Lewis), taste (Nisbett and Gurwitz; Kaplan and Fischer), smell (Lipsitt and Jacklin), and touch (Bell and others; Lipsitt and Levy).
Turning our attention to the possible differences that may exist between sexes in intellectual abilities, there is an overriding issue to be considered when judging the evidence provided by the research. It appears that the intellectual functioning of an individual cannot be considered in a vacuum (any more than other lines of personality function can). There is ample evidence that intellectual functioning varies among individuals due to genetic endowment and to biological, psychological, and environmental influences on the mother and her child during the perinatal and postnatal period. For a complete review of this subject, the reader may consult an excellent summary provided by Maccoby and Jacklin. There is no compelling evidence so far that suggests that there is a difference between sexes in intellectual functioning and performance.
The controversy over the impact of sex hormones on spatial and verbal abilities is important enough to be mentioned here. Vandenberg’s twin study suggested that both verbal abilities and spatial abilities are closely related to heredity. Spatial ability in particular seemed to be less influenced by environmental, educational, and cultural factors. Vandenberg’s findings have been supported by recent studies (Bock and Kolakowski) which demonstrated a cross-sex correlation between parent-child spatial abilities. On verbal ability, information is limited, but it appears that as early as three to eighteen months of age, girls are superior to boys in verbal abilities, such as “speech quotients” (Moore), and comprehension and vocabulary (Clarke-Stewart).
The obvious question is, to what extent do hormonal influences account for these differences? For example, the findings of Ehrhardt and Baker suggested that fetally androgenized girls have higher-than-average IQs, implying that an increase in the male hormone is responsible for the higher intellectual functioning, which supports the findings of an earlier study by Ehrhardt and Money. However, the same study found that normal sisters of these children also had higher-than-average IQs. Comparing the level of performance, simple, over-learned, and repetitive tasks (set A) with more complex tasks requiring information-processing, reorganization of stimulus, and the inhibition of initial response (set B), Broverman and others found that females were superior in performing set A, but males were superior in performing set B. This finding has been challenged by Maccoby and Jacklin with some justification, but the matter is not settled and awaits further investigation.
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