Virtual reality research finds large sex difference in navigational efficiency

This study goes a little further, in that it investigates the kinds of strategies that men and women tend to choose themselves. (Interestingly, the strategies that the participants actually used didn’t match up well with the kinds of strategies they reported generally taking.) Still, the findings do tally with those suggesting that men tend to be superior navigators in situations in which: a). It’s possible to create a mental map, and b). that map can be useful (in an environment where shortcuts aren’t possible, it’s not likely to help). The researchers do stress, however, that some women in their study were just as efficient as the best male performers. If men are more likely to use mental maps, which permit shortcuts, and women are more likely to use known routes and to wander, why might this be? It has been suggested by psychologists that while using landmarks and known routes won’t always be as efficient, this is likely to be a safer option for women (who, it’s argued, are more vulnerable than men), both in terms of avoiding getting lost and in reducing the risk of encountering something dangerous. (If taking a shortcut turns out to require tiptoeing around a bear’s den, the risk to life surely outweighs the potential gain in cutting a few minutes from the journey home…). Overall, even in the cases when men and women used the same strategy to navigate, the men were faster at getting to the targets. Why might men be faster at following or reversing a known ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Cognition Gender Source Type: blogs