Navigation abilities/skills of humans by sex and sexual orientation

[hitssquad]

From New Scientist:

Gay men employ the same strategies for navigating as women - using landmarks to find their way around - a new study suggests.

But they also use the strategies typically used by straight men, such as using compass directions and distances. In contrast, gay women read maps just like straight women, reveals the study of 80 heterosexual and homosexual men and women.

"Gay men adopt male and female strategies. Therefore their brains are a sexual mosaic," explains Qazi Rahman, a psychobiologist who led the study at the University of East London, UK. "It's not simply that lesbians have men's brains and gay men have women's brains."

The stereotype that women are relatively poor map readers is borne out by a reasonable bulk of scientific literature, notes Rahman. "Men, particularly, excel at spatial navigation."

The new study might help researchers understand how cognitive differences and sexual orientation develop in the womb, he says.


Left at the church

Previous tests challenging men and women to make their way through virtual-reality mazes, or real-life scenarios, have shown that men tend to be speedier and use different strategies to women.

But Rahman points out this does not mean that all women are bad map readers, or that it is the mental strategy employed that makes the difference.

Women tend to navigate using landmarks. For example: "Turn left at the church and carry on past the corner shop." Rahman told New Scientist that "men rely more on the points of the compass; they have a better sense of north, south, east and west". They are also more likely to describe distances.

More of the article is here:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7069

 

[Curious3141]

I dunno, I'm a straight male and I have an absolutely crappy sense of direction.

 

[hypatia]

And I'm a female who reads maps and knows direction...
I do agree that men and woman think differently, which is more then likely a good thing.

 

[hitssquad]

I'm a female who reads maps and knows direction.

And what is your 2D:4D ratio?

 

[hypatia]

Eh GADS...my ring finger is about 1/2 inch shorter.

 

[hitssquad]

Your report (of a 4D that is shorter than a 2D) sounds unusual. The feminine norm (for females and feminine males) is equal-length 2D and 4D. The masculine norm (for males and masculine females) is a 2D that is shorter than the corresponding 4D. Would you post a photo of your hand, please?

 

[0TheSwerve0]

And I'm a female who reads maps and knows direction...
I do agree that men and woman think differently, which is more then likely a good thing.

Yeah, that's a sex difference that's not noticeable unless you test large groups, same with verbal ability/reading comprehension. Spatial ability is the big one. I read some research on this and the causes are hormonal in nature. Here are the figures:

study 1
- females on the pill (higher estrogen) did worse than females menstruating (not on the pill that week, lower in estrogen) in spatial abilities, but better in manual dexterity and articulation (traditional female skills).
...estrogen inhibits spatial ability and enhances "female" abilities.

study 2
- males with high levels of testosterone did more poorly than males with low levels of testosterone, while females with higher levels of testosterone did better than females with low levels of testosterone.
- in rats at a certain point, females with very high levels of estrogen behave like males. So the levels have to be precise for certain abilities.

study 3
- females with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (fetus exposed to high levels of testosterone in the womb) posted scores much closer to CAH and normal males while normal females scored much lower. (I believe that 5/6 males will outscore females in this ability)
- CAH males scored the same as average males.
- 5-alpha reductase males (missing the enzyme to convert testosterone into dihydrotestosterone), did worse than normal males and females.
...testosterone is responsible for increased spatial abilty.

Also, in children and adolescent students, as the classes get harder, the gap btw males and females gets bigger. In 7th graders, when given new problems which they hadn't taken a course on, males did better again, learning to solve a strange new problem. Social factors were ruled out (I can outline how if you'd like).

All taken from Robert Pool's Eve's Rib: The Biological Root of Sex Differences©1992, out of print except at copy stores as readers.

 

[0TheSwerve0]

My ratios are mismatched! Is this normal? My left ring finger is longer than my index finger by more than in the right hand.

 

[hitssquad]

Your 4D lengths are higher than your 2D lengths? You said previously they were lower.

 

[0TheSwerve0]

That wasn't me. You are responding to me right?

 

[hitssquad]

Attached below is an X-ray picture of what seems to be (since the second and fourth digits seem to be equal length) a typical female hand. I labeled the second and fourth digits so people can be clear on which are which.

 

[hitssquad]

Given the finger, how do you read maps

That wasn't me.

Sorry. I confused you with Hypatia.

You are responding to me right?

Yes. I don't know if asymmetry of distal-ratios is abnormal, but I understand that in general some degree of body asymmetry is normal (although symmetrical faces are considered more attractive.) Anyway, apparently you have the finger. Would you say your map-reading strategies are more masculine (cartesian-coordinate and compass-direction driven; i.e., spatial) or feminine (landmark and follow-the-turns-recipe driven; i.e., verbal).

 

[selfAdjoint]

So what is this finger data? My index finger is a half inch shorter than my middle finger, and my ring finger is a quarter inch shorter than my middle finger. What does that make me? BTW, that writer is as blindly opinionated as he says his old teacher Chris Brand was.

 

[hitssquad]

Given the finger, part 2: the distal years

So what is this finger data?

2D:4D ratio, which is the ratio of the distal length of the second digit (the index finger) to the distal length of the fourth digit (the ring finger) of the same hand. This ratio tends to be higher in heterosexual females (typically almost 1.00) than in males (and it may be important to measure this only in the right hand, I recently learned). This phenomenon may have something to do with in-utero androgen exposure (as one research-paper author put it, "There is evidence that the relative length of the 2nd and 4th digit (2D:4D) is negatively correlated with prenatal testosterone") and further may be linked to sexual dimorphism in personality and mental ability.

My index finger is a half inch shorter than my middle finger, and my ring finger is a quarter inch shorter than my middle finger. What does that make me?

It makes you a person with a 2D:4D distal difference of 1/4 inch. To get your 2D:4D ratio, you will need to measure your fingers' distal lengths. For example, if your ring finger turns out to be three inches, your 2D:4D ratio is 2.75/3.00=0.917. This is a typically masculine 2D:4D ratio, from what I have read.

 

[0TheSwerve0]

I usually use landmarks. Here's a picture of my hands. I was tiliting it on the right a hand a bit, so the index fingers aren't exactly lined up. My right index and ring finger are about the same length. My left ring finger is about a fourth of an inch longer than my right.

 

[loseyourname]

I don't have a picture, but does this mean anything? All of the fingers on my left hand are longer than the fingers on my right hand, but the 4th and 5th digits on my left hand are significantly longer than their counterparts on the right hand. In fact, the 4th digit is only a slight bit shorter than the 3rd.

 

[0TheSwerve0]

check out the 4th paragraph

 

[hitssquad]

check out the 4th paragraph

Hmmm. "This sex difference in 2D:4D is greater on the right hand than on the left (see figure 1a below), indicating that the right-hand 2D:4D is more sensitive to fetal androgens than the left-hand ratio. The right-hand 2D:4D ratio of homosexual women was significantly more masculine (that is, smaller) than that of heterosexual women, and did not differ significantly from that of heterosexual men." And Swerve's right hand seems to be significantly less masculine than her left hand.

 

[0TheSwerve0]

wow, confusing. So my left hand is gay and my right hand is straight?
Should I be bisexual or internally torn?