Review article

Cognitive Gender Differences: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Predrag ZAREVSKI ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb
Krunoslav MATEŠIĆ ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb
Krunoslav MATEŠIĆ ml. ; Faculty of Philosophy, Osijek

Abstract

Cognitive gender differences are analyzed in this paper. The
article covers major studies from early 20th century to the
most recent studies of meta-analyses. It is focused on those
studies whose aim was to investigate the differences in the g
factor and closer intelligence factors dependent on gender.
Studies investigating the varying development of intelligence
in pre-adolescent and adolescent age groups in relation to
gender are also presented. The paper clearly shows the
problems faced by investigators in their attempts to measure
intelligence and draw conclusions on the difference of
intelligence between the sexes. The causes of inconsistency
should be sought in different operationalizations of constructs
on which comparisons are based. The only common
conclusion is that males regularly show a greater distribution
of intelligence measures, i.e. they are more evenly distributed
at the ends of the scale, while females show a more narrow
distribution curve. The only larger difference in favour of
males is some visual-spatial abilities which are not showing
any tendency to decrease. Some verbal abilities are more
pronounced in women, with a trend toward the reduction of
these differences. Cognitive gender differences are
investigated more frequently in terms of cognitive processes
and less as intelligence factors. Finally, the conclusion is that
studies should focus on the search for similarities among the
sexes, as 78% of meta-analyses yielded negligible differences
and only 8% of cases revealed large differences.

Keywords

spolne razlike; inteligencija; g-faktor; IQ; metaanaliza

Hrčak ID:

60115

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/60115

Publication date:

31.10.2010.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

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