So Male and Female Brains are Wired Differently

meeeeh

An interesting study that apparently proves women are better at multitasking. I'm also wondering if that shows that IQ tests are biased.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/it-s-true-male-and-female-brains-are-wired-differently-1.1615484

pwurple

Hmmm. Source is the Guardian... and from a study of "428 males and 521 females aged eight to 22" in a particular area, it's extrapolating to the other 7 billion of us up to age 100.

I'd take that one with a pinch of salt to be honest.

Jerrica

There are so, so many studies done on male vs. female brain differences, it's impossible to hold any one study up as being definitive. I think it's fair to say that there quite simply are differences between brains of each gender, but it's a sliding scale of differences such that there will be some individuals showing far right characteristics of their gender and some who have varying degrees of both (and it's likely that the majority of us fall in the latter group).

It's fun to see what these studies tell us, but the danger lies in letting these studies set expectations of a whole gender when in reality our behaviour is about so much more than neuroanatomy.

Amirani

These test results are always interpreted incorrectly by people. The results show that females on average are better at multitasking than males, not that females are better at multitasking than males. It may seem like semantics, but it's a crucially important distinction in any statistical test.

If the researcher in question is going to come out and say: "Women are better at intuitive thinking. Women are better at remembering things. When you talk, women are more emotionally involved - they will listen more.”, she either has no statistical background or else she's been misquoted. I'd suggest it's perhaps the latter, journalists are very fond of ignoring important statistical terms, there's no such hyperbole in this article on the same paper: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131202161935.htm

Unless a statistician knows that in more than 95%(general rule} of cases that women are better at men at intuitive thinking and better at remembering things and more emotionally involved then they won't speak in such absolutes.

Amirani

pwurple wrote: »

Hmmm. Source is the Guardian... and from a study of "428 males and 521 females aged eight to 22" in a particular area, it's extrapolating to the other 7 billion of us up to age 100.

I'd take that one with a pinch of salt to be honest.

A sample size of 1000 is pretty good. Still, we know nothing about their sampling mechanism or actual findings. The Irish Times article is a copy of a report of a report of a study that was done. Until there's a chance to look at the statistical findings of the report (doesn't seem to be on online journal databases that can be accessed by universities yet), I'd say it's impossible not to take it with a pinch of salt.

seamus

Jerrica wrote: »

It's fun to see what these studies tell us, but the danger lies in letting these studies set expectations of a whole gender when in reality our behaviour is about so much more than neuroanatomy.

This. As soon as you start using studies to say that "Men can't do X", "Women are incapable of understanding Y", you've completely missed the entire point of these studies.

There are studies which suggest that the conscious brain is incapable of truly multitasking (that is, providing 100% focus on multiple tasks at the same time). Instead the brain context-switches really quickly between each tasks, making it appear like multitasking. From a computer science point of view, this makes perfect sense as computer likewise cannot do more than one task at once, some clever tricks are used to make it appear like this is the case.
Like computers, the brain uses tricks like muscle memory and overlearning to allow you to delegate actions to the unconscious brain and let you accomplish multiple tasks seamlessly (and seemingly effortlessly) at once - like circus jugglers or concert pianists.

It may be that the average female brain is "wired" in such a way to allow more efficient context-switching. There could also easily be acquired differences and women and men's brains deal with multitasking differently because they've been socially conditioned for it. Which also opens the possibility that you can improve or degrade this ability through your actions.

Amirani

seamus wrote: »

It may be that the average female brain is "wired" in such a way to allow more efficient context-switching. There could also easily be acquired differences and women and men's brains deal with multitasking differently because they've been socially conditioned for it. Which also opens the possibility that you can improve or degrade this ability through your actions.

The study does note that the differences are greater between older teens than younger teens. It doesn't explicitly state though whether this is likely caused by social conditioning or just natural brain development.

meeeeh

NiallSparky wrote: »

The study does note that the differences are greater between older teens than younger teens. It doesn't explicitly state though whether this is likely caused by social conditioning or just natural brain development.

That is one of the things I was wondering about. But whatever the reason for me those results are fairly important because of education and consequences for professional careers. If educational methods and evaluations are biased towards one or the other gender in different areas that could be part of the reason for gender domination in certain professions. I just find it very interesting.

clairefontaine

I am terrible at multi tasking.

I hate when people come out with the "well most people"do....x or "most women ..." I'm not most people or most women.

So does this now mean its validated people's expectations to expect you to constantly juggle?

RDM_83 again

meeeeh wrote: »

That is one of the things I was wondering about. But whatever the reason for me those results are fairly important because of education and consequences for professional careers. If educational methods and evaluations are biased towards one or the other gender in different areas that could be part of the reason for gender domination in certain professions. I just find it very interesting.

Its definitely interesting, but though being better able to handle multi-tasking is an obvious advantage particularly in the modern world, multi-tasking itself isn't something that should necessarily be encouraged unless its actually necessary.

There have been a few studies that show multi-tasking is less efficient than being more focused on individual tasks (in both men and woman). Googling Clifford Naas brings up some of the better, more academic ones.

meeeeh

I mentioned multitasking as a joke. It's one of those stereotypes that get thrown around a lot.

I think, if true, this is fairly significant data in how certain things are measured. I mentioned IQ tests because it is often claimed that they favor white middle class males. There was another research I read about a while ago that is not gender specific. It was how poverty lowers IQ.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/08/how-poverty-taxes-brain/6716/

I think those kind of studies are offering to view certain prejudices in different light and could also help to achieve better equality. Expecting everybody to be the same actually often puts some people in disadvantaged position.

clairefontaine

meeeeh wrote: »

That is one of the things I was wondering about. But whatever the reason for me those results are fairly important because of education and consequences for professional careers. If educational methods and evaluations are biased towards one or the other gender in different areas that could be part of the reason for gender domination in certain professions. I just find it very interesting.

Education is a bit of a minefield.

They have found education to work against boys, and they have found more girls in college and in higher degrees, but that boys still end up in higher paying professions.

Honestly my theory, without any kind of scientific back up, is that girls tend to take the safe options, travelling through academia getting good grades, but far less likely to take bold risks and put themselves out there to risk rejections. I think our dating etiquette from a young age has a lot to do with this. Boys get used to dealing with rejection and also have sports for healthy competition, girls less so. IQ and education are red herrings when it comes to success.

Wibbs

Jerrica wrote: »

It's fun to see what these studies tell us, but the danger lies in letting these studies set expectations of a whole gender when in reality our behaviour is about so much more than neuroanatomy.

Plus that neuroanatomy is incredibly plastic. You can learn different ways of thinking.