Deary et al. (2003) present data, further analysed by Johnson et al. (2008), showing a sex difference in general intelligence across a whole population: males were more variable than females and were over-represented at the lower and upper ends of the distribution. We propose a single-factor explanation based on hemisphericity, the degree of hemispheric independence and lateralization of function. We demonstrate this argument with a conceptual analysis and with neural network simulations of hemispheric interaction. We discuss the nature of abstraction in computational cognitive modelling. Greater male variance in general intelligence can be at least partially understood as emerging from increased hemisphericity, underlining the latter’s critical role in the evolution, development and functioning of human cognition.
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