Sex Differences in Using Spatial and Verbal Abilities Influence Route Learning Performance in a Virtual Environment: A Comparison of 6- to 12-Year Old Boys and Girls

Abstract

Previous studies have reported sex differences in wayfinding performance among adults. Men are typically better at using Euclidean information and survey strategies while women are better at using landmark information and route strategies. However, relatively few studies have examined sex differences in wayfinding in children. This research investigated relationships between route learning performance and two general abilities: spatial ability and verbal memory in 153 boys and girls between 6- to 12-years-old. Children completed a battery of spatial ability tasks (a two-dimension mental rotation task, a paper folding task, a visuo-spatial working memory task, and a Piagetian water level task) and a verbal memory task. In the route learning task, they had to learn a route through a series of hallways presented via computer. Boys had better overall route learning performance than did girls. In fact, the difference between boys and girls was constant across the age range tested. Structural equation modeling of the children’s performance revealed that spatial abilities and verbal memory were significant contributors to route learning performance. However, there were different patterns of correlates for boys and girls. For boys, spatial abilities contributed to route learning while verbal memory did not. In contrast, for girls both spatial abilities and verbal memory contributed to their route learning performance. This difference may reflect the precursor of a strategic difference between boys and girls in wayfinding that is commonly observed in adults.

Sex Differences in Gray Matter Volume of the Right Anterior Hippocampus Explain Sex Differences in Three-Dimensional Mental Rotation

“…In modern-day life, males may no longer need to hunt, but they still prefer activities involving spatial processing such video games and sports (Okagaki and Frensch, 1994; Ozel et al, 2004; Robert and Héroux, 2004; Cherney and London, 2006), which may have continued to help males gain an advantage in spatial ability. Males and females have also been found to use different strategies when performing a navigation task, with males using spatial strategies and females using both verbal and spatial strategies (Merrill et al, 2016). …”

Path Learning in Individuals With Down Syndrome: The Floor Matrix Task and the Role of Individual Visuo-Spatial Measures

“…It is generally assumed that large-scale abilities (like path learning) are related to small-scale abilities (Hegarty et al, 2006), which include a large set of skills used in basic processing, such as WM, and higher-level functions like mental rotation (Hegarty and Waller, 2005). The relation between small-scale (spatial) abilities and environment learning performance has been demonstrated in adults (Hegarty et al, 2006;Weisberg et al, 2014) as well as in developmental age, in 5-6 years old children (e.g., Fenner et al, 2000;Purser et al, 2012Purser et al, , 2015Merrill et al, 2016;Thomas et al, 2016), albeit with some inconsistencies in the findings. In a recent study, Merrill et al (2016) found that the visuo-spatial abilities -i.e., mental rotation, spatial visualization (the ability to arrange spatial stimuli), and visuo-spatial working memory (in a task resembling those used to test simultaneous WM) -of children 6-12 years old were related to their path learning accuracy (after exploring VE), but it was only in females that verbal WM was also a significant predictor of their performance.…”

“…The relation between small-scale (spatial) abilities and environment learning performance has been demonstrated in adults (Hegarty et al, 2006;Weisberg et al, 2014) as well as in developmental age, in 5-6 years old children (e.g., Fenner et al, 2000;Purser et al, 2012Purser et al, , 2015Merrill et al, 2016;Thomas et al, 2016), albeit with some inconsistencies in the findings. In a recent study, Merrill et al (2016) found that the visuo-spatial abilities -i.e., mental rotation, spatial visualization (the ability to arrange spatial stimuli), and visuo-spatial working memory (in a task resembling those used to test simultaneous WM) -of children 6-12 years old were related to their path learning accuracy (after exploring VE), but it was only in females that verbal WM was also a significant predictor of their performance. Fenner et al (2000) also found visuo-spatial abilities (including visualization, mental rotation and tasks resembling those used to test sequential WM) related to path learning (after exploring VE) in 5-6 years old, but not in 8-9 year old children.…”

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“…Though further research is certainly needed on the role of small-scale (spatial cognitive) abilities in successful path learning, our results support the spatial cognition model postulating a relationship between small-and large-scale abilities not only in young adults (Hegarty et al, 2006), and TD children (Merrill et al, 2016), but also in cases of atypical development. This relationship can be demonstrated using VE , and also -as our study newly showed -using actual movements in the environment.…”