Lecture 9 - sex/gender and cognition

Question 1

sex/gender differences in cognition

Answer 1

• there is evidence the sex/gender can influence performance on a range of cog tasks: visuospatial abilities, verbal abilities, attention, memory, maths
• effect sizes are small and inconsistent
• findings refer to averages not indivs

Question 2

sex/gender differences in cognition: visuospatial abilities

Answer 2

• visuospatial cog = processes inc spatial perception, visualisation, generation/maintenance of spatial images & mental rotation
• most studies focus on mental rotation
• tasks may inc water level test, line orientation task (medium effect sizes) while paper folding task is small effect sizes
• Kheloui et al (2023) - men typically outperform mental rotation tasks (largest effect sizes & consistent)
  > Collins & Kimura (1997) - 2 rotation measures: 2D (easy vs hard) and 3d. sex/gender difs present in all versions of the task, especially 2D easy task - seems to be effect of difficulty
• meta analyses favour men for mental rotation and spatial perception
• on other visuospatial tasks men seem to do slightly better but effect sizes smaller than mental rotation.
• however women outperform on tasks of spatial location memory.
  > Voyer et al (2007) meta analysis - dif favours women and some interaction with objects: men better with ‘masc’ objects. reflective of womens better verbal ability (use verbal list?)
  > may be due to methodological or theoretical effects on subprocesses that underpin OLM

Question 3

sex/gender differences in cognition: verbal abilities

Answer 3

• women seem to outperform men on these tasks
• verbal abilities: reading comp, spelling, writing, verbal memory (memory for words) & verbal fluency (ease someone can produce verbal info & subdivided into letter and category fluency)
• meta analyses show small effect size favouring women for range of verbal tasks and medium effect for verbal fluency. women also favoured for english language arts, reading/writing skills, phonemic fluency & verbal fluency
• individual studies suggest an inconsistency
• Kheloui et al (2023) - magnitude of sex/gender difs depend on task used and whether age/education controlled for
  > Mathuranath et al (2003) - examined affect of age education and gender on verbal fluency. found no sex dif in either task. level of ed ifnluenced letter fluency not age or gender.

Question 4

sex/gender differences in cognition: attention

Answer 4

• attention inc processes: selective attention, sustained, divided and executive attention. they interact to shape perception with sensory inputs via 3 networks: orientation, signalling & executive networks
• some suggestion women outperform tests of attentional ability
• some suggest women more susceptible to distraction by invalid cues, others suggest womens use of cue depends on the type of cue used
• fewer studies looked at sustained or divided attention but those that have suggest men are better at this - but not consistent

Question 5

sex/gender differences in cognition: memory

Answer 5

• Voyer et al. (2007) meta analysis: women outperform men on tests of episodic memory more accurately & in more detail & OLM
• meta analysis shows men more variance in verbal and spatial episodic memory while women more variance in route memory
• women appear to outperform men in recall & recognition for verbal episodic memory with small effect sizes
• some evidence that memory can be influenced by sex hormones (estradiol & progesterone) especially for those memory processes that involve cognitive control

Question 6

sex/gender differences in cognition: mathematics

Answer 6

• most controversial finding
• orginally documented (Benbow & Stanley 1980) that by age 13 a large sex dif appears in favour of males, especially at upper end of distribution led to idea that boys were stronger in maths
• does a dif really exist? women seem to achieve better marks in maths tests vs boys & other meta analyses show minor effect size favouring boys.
• effect sizes depending on contextual factors: type of school, type of test, extracurriculars, encouragement towards maths (stereotypes)
• stereotypes modulate cog abilities and can impair performance (stereotype threat effect) or create challenge to do better (stereotype reactance effect)
• pos stereotypes can directly improve performance (stereotype lift effect)

Question 7

what is causing inconsistencies in cognitive sex/gender differences

Answer 7

• bio factors related to sex
  > sex hormones influencing selective attention
  > sex hormones influencing visuospatial abilities
• socio-cultural factors & gender
  > male typical activities can reduce some difs
  > training can reduce some sex/gender difs
  > differ cross cultural with different gender equality levels
  > gender stereotypes & gender identification

Question 8

sex hormones

Answer 8

• steroid hormones that interact with steroid hormone receptors
• can be endogenous (naturally occurring) or exogenous (synthetic)
• endogenous synthesised by gonads (testes & ovaries) and adrenal glands
  > lipophilicity = can cross the blood-brain barrier and interact with receptors in brain
  > can also be synthesised locally in brain
• 3 groups of sex hormones: estrogens, progestins and androgens
• most important human derivatives are: estradiol, progesterone and testosterone

Question 9

what effects do sex hormones have

Answer 9

• affect body and brain across lifespan
  > earliest ifnluence is foetal dev: embryo develops as male or female
  > puberty: promotion of sex specific characteristics
  > reproductive behaviour & functions
• sex hormones also influence body in ways that are not related to sexual behaviour or sex differentiation
  > impact on cardiovascular health e.g. oral cont and blood clots
  > bone health & muscle dev
  > immune system
  > synthesis of insulin
• also affect brain fuctions

Question 10

activating effects of sex hormones

Answer 10

• sex hormones can have transient effects that result in dynamic changes in functional brain org, activity & cog finctions (activating effects)
• often studied with menstrual cycle as can track impact of hormones
• lateralisation fluctuates across menstrual cycle in line with hormones
• some studies show FCAs inc during high hormone phases, others show dec
• Hausmann & Gunturkun (2020) - identified an interaction between cycle phase and FCAs in all tasks indicating a general reduction in FCAs during high progesterone luteal phase
  > in contrast FCAs were stable across time in postmenopausal women and men

Question 11

how do sex hormones influence FCAs

Answer 11

• in slight of evidence suggesting high levels of P reduce lateralisation, Hausmann et al proposed progesterone-mediated decoupling hypothesis
  > high P reduces interhemispheric inhibition by suppressing excitatory neural response to glutamate and inc inhibitiory response to GABA
  > dom hem no longer suppresses activity in non-dom hem and asymmetry reduced.
• Weis et al (2008) dircetly investigated this in cog tasks: most signif activation during word matching was left frontal inferior gyrus (exerted inhibitory influence over right ifg that was stronger during menstrual phase of low E and high P)
• high estradiol associated with reduction of interhemispheric inhibition in both cycle phases
• Weis (2011) E can also reduce functional connectivity between heterotopic regions

Question 12

sex hormones, FCAs and cognition

Answer 12

• performance on cog tasks can vary in line with hormonal fluctuations
• Hausmann et al (2000) - performance on 3D mental rotation was worse during luteal phase (High E and high P) vs menstrual phase (Low E and Low P). = having high E and high P impairs performance on rotation tasks
• T improves visuospatial abilities
• E and P shown to improve verbal fluency while T impairs this
• others suggest it is not the performance that fluctuates but the strategies used to complete the tasks. cycle phase can interact with strategy use & during luteal phase accuracy for euclidian strategy dec while accuracy for landmark strategy inc vs follicular cycle phase
• sex hormones can influence performance of tasks associated with pfc (higher order cognition) e.g. dichotic listening task - sex hormone fluctuations = top down Cog control improved during follicular phase (estradiol levels related)
• effect of estradiol may depend in indiv difs in baseline dopaminergic function - can look at someones genotype if they have good or poor baseline dopamine. certain alleles (yal/yal) = lower dopamine. too much dop with oestradiol impairs performance (relates to stress)

Question 13

individual differences in sex hormonal effects

Answer 13

• Jacobs & d’esposito (2011) investigated interaction between E and dopamine across Wm tasks. women with low baseline dopamine had poor wm during menstrual phase but improved during follicular phase when estradiol inc
• high dop show opp pattern
• estradiol impacts wm and the direction depends on indices of baseline dopamine.
• affects treatment of menopause using hormone therapy
• suggests there may be a sex/gender dif in effect of dopaminergic medications

Question 14

developmental influences on sex/gender differences

Answer 14

• engaging in male typical play is associated with better spatial ability. these could be adapted into training programmes to improve spatial skills
• also seen in neural changes
  > Haier et al (2009) groups who had testric practice vs no experience of games showed thicker cortex in two areas: left BA6 and 22/38. also showed activity dec in several frontal areas.

Question 15

cultural influences on sex/gender differences

Answer 15

• two tribes in northeast india show similar genetics, locations, diet 7 wealth but key differneces in sex/gender roles (partillineal vs matrilinneal)
• Hoffman et al (2011) - cross cultural study of gender difs in spatial abilities - 33% variance was explained by difs in education level and can maintain sex/gender difs
• in patriarchal society we see higher mean times to solve puzzles

Question 16

gender stereotype effects on sex/gender differences

Answer 16

• stereotype threat effects
• stereotype resistance effects
• Wraga et al (2006) - sex/gender difs in mental rotation change in response to environmental cies. sex/gender difs are also driven by sociocultural factors - may help explain inconsistencies in literature
  > mental rotation worse for women than men
  > pos stereotype on women performance reduced gap but still more errors
  > a pos stereotype of womens performance reduced mens performance
• Hausmann (2014) 0 investigated whether gender stereotypes/academic background affected performance on sex/gender sensitive tasks.
  > males outperformed f but there s interaction of science/arts conditions and stereotyped conditions. affect predominantly driven by arts students who were given stereotype threat effect.
  > priming academic identity also primes gender identity
  > f arts students vulnerable to stereotype threat in a cog domain perceived as being associated with science & male