Sexuality and mental rotation

[differenceblog]

Judy Skatssoon (6/4/2007), writing for news.com.au, says that the University of Warwick has "dealt heterosexual women a final indignity." Skatssoon is referring to research by Michael Tlauka that found differences in mental rotation ability, with straight men scoring the highest while straight women scored the lowest. However, although the news

Comments

[astrogeek01]

Oh, I'm *really* good at those tasks. Like, really really good. I've learned to be good, because it's fairly useful in my field of work. I didn't find it too hard to learn, though. I tend to be better at it than many men.

This kind of "test" really makes me wonder mostly about the socialization - since it was so easy for me to learn, because I needed to and wanted to, I wonder how much of it is that men are encouraged to be builders vs other things. When you're putting together car parts or building something out of wood, you start to naturally begin to see how things fit together.

I would be curious to see if women who sew their own clothes without using a pattern also develop this ability - I certainly know that it's useful to me both when I'm making something AND when I sew, as well as in my work.

[astrogeek01]

(better than many men, even in my field. nyah!)

[differenceblog]

Interesting. I wonder if there's a confound between sexuality and career -- that seems stupid, but there may be a grain of truth to the job-choice-stereotypes.

[astrogeek01]

No one in my family, that I know of, is left handed (including extended family/cousins/etc, of which there are a LOT).

I am just teh awesome! ;)