Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero!geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu
From: geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu (Gordon E. Banks)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: sex/gender
Message-ID: <3145@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU>
Date: 26 Jul 89 15:30:13 GMT
References: <8907071844.AA10158@cattell.psych.upenn.edu> <10546@polya.Stanford.EDU> <12869@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <10781@polya.Stanford.EDU> <18834@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu>
Sender: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
Reply-To: elroy!ames!cadre.dsl.pitt.edu!geb (Gordon E. Banks)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
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In article <18834@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu> Judy Badner said:
>
>Regarding sex differences in spatial abilities among humans and voles.
>I read one of the articles Gordon cited on voles.  It studied two
>populations of voles, one in which males covered a larger territory
>than females, the other in which the territories between the two were
>similar.  In the first group, spatial ability was greater in males
>and in the second group, they were similar between the sexes.  
>Assuming these studies are valid, they show that differences in spatial
>ability by sex is not a given since there was no difference in the
>second group.  But most importantly, the cause and effect cannot
>be separated.  In the first group, did the increased spatial ability
>cause an increase in territorial coverage among males or did the
>increased territorial coverage cause increased spatial ability?
>
But weren't the voles two different species of voles, not just two
different populations of voles?  The idea being that the differences
are hereditary not environmental.  Now why the differences evolved, is
another question entirely.  Obviously, the environment is the
base cause of that.

>There is evidence among humans that differences in environment affects
>spatial ability.  In a Kenya village, children who undertook tasks that
>led them away from home performed better on several measures of
>visual-spatial ability than children remaining close to home. [1]

Yes, all inborn neurologic "abilities" must be exercised in order to
develop.  If you patch a kitten's eyes from birth to several months,
it will be functionally blind (please kids, don't try this at home).
If you don't teach a child to speak until it is 3 or 4, it will
never learn to use language properly.
You are right that it is difficult to show (in humans) what part
is due to nature and what part to nurture.  What is certain is that
there are sex differences.  Perhaps with the radical changes in
freedom of women we will soon find out.