Cognitive Behavior Abilities in Men and Women

Cognitive Behavior Abilities in Men and Women

Three major differences cognitive behavior abilities men women: higher verbal abilities, higher spatial abilities, higher arithmetical abilities

Neuropsychologists and psychologists have widely analyzed the difference in cognitive abilities expressed by members of the male and female genders. The analysis of these professionals has revealed the existence of three major cognitive differences between the genders. The differences include higher verbal abilities in women; higher arithmetic abilities in males and higher spatial abilities in males. However, the possession of superior arithmetic abilities by males has been closely related their possession of top notch spatial abilities. This implies that the differences in cognitive abilities can be condensed or summarized into two.

Close look at the differences in verbal abilities among males and females reveal that women perform best in verbal tests as compared to their male counterparts. Additionally, a woman's language development cycle is faster than that of a man. Females are well endowed with a broader vocabulary, their diction and pronunciation is more refined and are also more fluent is their speech (Ackerman, 2006). The differences in verbal abilities start very early in life and disappears in early childhood. In adulthood, the differences in verbal abilities between males and females are not readily identifiable by the research methods of this present age and time.

The differences in spatial abilities have been obtained more readily between the genders than the disparities in verbal abilities. Data obtained from spatial tasks that include geographical orientation and navigation has revealed that men outperform women in these tasks (Ackerman, 2006). However, the magnitude of these differences is minute and varies in depending on the test used and the age of the test subjects. The same research has also revealed that visual-spatial abilities vary markedly between males and females with males taking the upper hand.

Gender disparity in arithmetic skills or abilities has also been reported to some degree. Results indicate a slight difference in average performance in arithmetic manipulation to genders in the 4th-8th grade. A significant disparity in arithmetic abilities of the two genders is however reported in their last year of high school (Ballinger, Hudson, Karkoviata, & Wilcox, 2011). Additionally, larger differences are reported in gifted populations where females are outwitted by their male counterparts by about a half a standard deviation. Usually, a look at primary arithmetic skills reveals no disparity in the performance by the genders. Conversely, marked differences in the performance of males and females in the secondary arithmetic skills are reported. The researches in secondary cognitive abilities reveal that men outperform women in secondary arithmetic tasks such as solving word problems and geometry (Ballinger et al., 2011).