Gender Differences in Cognitive Abilities in Human Adults

Abstract

Modern world of globalization and unification is of particular interest considering the rapid changes in men's and women's dispositions and engagement in societal institutions. According to these contemporary developments of the psychosocial context, cognitive differences between females and males may also be changing. The aim of this study was to update findings from the last two decades regarding gender differences in cognitive abilities. Major updated results confirm earlier studies and demonstrate relevant gender differences in spatial abilities, verbal skills, emotional processing and executive functions. Like earlier studies, the new data also show small to trivial gender differences in mathematics performance, yet gender effects on complex problem solving are found to be smaller than in 1990 meta-analyses. The updated data confirm that gender differences in cognitive abilities do exist despite the increasing unification of men's and women's involvement in psychosocial contexts. Moreover, new scientific approaches demonstrate that these gender-specific cognitive differences are grounded on hormonal, neuroanatomical and neurofunctional substrates emphasizing their biological origin. Although the psychosocial interaction is of relevance, the primary biological basis of gender differences should be very strongly and carefully considered.