Gender Differences in Human Cognition

"This evaluation of current research in gender studies as they relate to cognition should be of particular interest to psychologists, educators, and policy-makers."--Shirley R. Rausher, Readings"Within the first pages, the authors focus their scholarly energies on verbal, spatial, and mathematical abilities because, we are told, researchers typically have searched for individual differences within such test domains. All four authors provide highly readable 30-page chapters, each taking a variation on the same perspective, i.e., that whatever cognitive differences you thought had been demonstrated between males and females should not be consideredbiological . . . This reviewer found the book's contents highly stimulating and informative, providing both valid and pseudoarguments to reject the very existence of sex differences in verbal, spatial,mathematical, and scientific abilities. . . . future researchers ignore the message of this text at their peril."--Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society"Results of some research suggest that gender differences have been growing smaller over recent decades. Here, five contributions discuss whether women and men differ in terms of their intellectual abilities; and, if there are differences, what are the origins--biology, childhood influences, cultural stereotypes? If there are no differences, why do people continue to assert that differences do exist? The essays discuss relevant research using the techniques ofmeta-analysis, pitfalls in the conception and execution of research on the topic, and the negative consequences of a focus on differences."--Reference & Research Book News"This evaluation of current research in gender studies as they relate to cognition should be of particular interest to psychologists, educators, and policy-makers."--Shirley R. Rausher, Readings"Within the first pages, the authors focus their scholarly energies on verbal, spatial, and mathematical abilities because, we are told, researchers typically have searched for individual differences within such test domains. All four authors provide highly readable 30-page chapters, each taking a variation on the same perspective, i.e., that whatever cognitive differences you thought had been demonstrated between males and females should not be consideredbiological . . . This reviewer found the book's contents highly stimulating and informative, providing both valid and pseudoarguments to reject the very existence of sex differences in verbal, spatial,mathematical, and scientific abilities. . . . future researchers ignore the message of this text at their peril."--Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society"Results of some research suggest that gender differences have been growing smaller over recent decades. Here, five contributions discuss whether women and men differ in terms of their intellectual abilities; and, if there are differences, what are the origins--biology, childhood influences, cultural stereotypes? If there are no differences, why do people continue to assert that differences do exist? The essays discuss relevant research using the techniques ofmeta-analysis, pitfalls in the conception and execution of research on the topic, and the negative consequences of a focus on differences."--Reference & Research Book News

• Contributors ; 1. Introduction to the Study of Gender Differences in Cognitiion ; 2. Gender Differences in Cognition: Results from Meta-Analyses ; 3. Do Sex-Related Cognitive Differences Exist, and Why Do People Seek Them Out? ; 4. The Meanings of Difference: Cognition in Soical and Cultural Context ; 5. Conclusions from the Study of Gender Differences in Cognition ; Author index ; Subject index