Evolution of Sex Differences in Spatial Ability

空间能力性别差异的演变

• 批准号: 8719913
• 负责人: Steven Gaulin
• 金额: $ 1万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1988
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1988-05-01 至 1989-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8719913&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Evolution; Sex; Differences; Spatial; Ability

In both humans and laboratory animals, males typically perform better than females on tasks that involve spatial thinking. Previous work in this field has tried to explain how sex differences in spatial ability occur during the lifetimes of males and females by focusing on the relatively immediate effects of sex hormones, brain organization and differential experience. Until now, the evolutionary and developmental components of this difference have received little attention. Dr. Gaulin has developed the ingenious hypothesis that sex differences in spatial ability have been favored by the evolutionary process. Dr. Gaulin proposes that evolution fosters spatial ability more strongly for more mobile animals: To orient successfully, an animal with a large home range needs more spatial skill than does an animal with a smaller range. To test this imaginative idea, he has chosen several closely related species of wild rodents which differ primarily in range size, and in reproductive strategies. Some species are polygamous, others monogamous. He has found that polygamous species have larger home ranges than members of closely related, but monogamous, species. Dr. Gaulin predicts that in monogamous species, where males and females have similar range sizes, no differences in spatial abilities will be found. Conversely, in the polygamous species, where males have much larger range sizes than do females, he predicts that these males will perform better in his laboratory tasks than do the females. Dr. Gaulin is combining both field and laboratory work to address this important question. Home ranges of individual male and female voles are measured using radio-telemetry, by fitting individual animals with miniaturized radio transmitters and following their movements for several weeks. Following the field work, he recaptures these same animals and measures their maze- learning ability in the laboratory. The current grant support is allowing him to continue these studies, originally funded by NSF grant BNS 85-08436. The results of these ongoing studies will contribute information of fundamental importance to ecology and to learning theory, and may eventually enhance our knowledge of factors that influence learning ability in humans.

在人类和实验动物中，男性通常比女性在涉及空间思维的任务中表现得更好。该领域之前的研究试图通过关注性激素、大脑组织和不同经历的相对直接影响，来解释男性和女性一生中空间能力的性别差异是如何发生的。到目前为止，这种差异的进化和发育成分很少受到关注。Gaulin博士提出了一个巧妙的假设，即空间能力的性别差异在进化过程中得到了青睐。Gaulin博士提出，对于更灵活的动物来说，进化更强烈地培养了它们的空间能力：为了成功地定位，活动范围大的动物比活动范围小的动物需要更多的空间技能。为了验证这个富有想象力的想法，他选择了几种关系密切的野生啮齿动物，它们主要在范围大小和繁殖策略上有所不同。一些物种是一夫多妻制，另一些是一夫一妻制。他发现，一夫多妻制的物种比近亲但一夫一妻制的物种有更大的活动范围。Gaulin博士预测，在一夫一妻制的物种中，雄性和雌性的范围大小相似，在空间能力方面没有差异。相反，在一夫多妻的物种中，雄性的范围比雌性大得多，他预测这些雄性在他的实验室任务中会比雌性表现得更好。Gaulin博士正在结合现场和实验室工作来解决这一重要问题。个体雄性和雌性田鼠的活动范围是用无线电遥测法测量的，方法是给个体安装微型无线电发射器，并跟踪它们的活动数周。在野外工作之后，他再次捕获了这些动物，并在实验室里测量了它们的迷宫学习能力。目前的资助支持允许他继续这些研究，最初由NSF资助BNS 85-08436。这些正在进行的研究的结果将为生态学和学习理论提供具有根本重要性的信息，并可能最终增强我们对影响人类学习能力的因素的认识。