Evolution of Sex Differences in Spatial Ability

在人类和实验室动物中，雄性通常 在涉及空间思维的任务上比女性更出色。 这个领域以前的研究试图解释性是如何 空间能力的差异发生在生命的过程中， 男性和女性通过关注相对直接的影响， 性激素、大脑组织和差异体验的关系。 到目前为止，这种进化和发展的组成部分， 差异很少受到关注。 高林博士 提出了一个巧妙的假设， 空间能力在进化过程中受到青睐。 高林博士提出，进化更能培养空间能力， 强烈地为更多的移动的动物：为了成功地定向， 一个有着大的活动范围的动物需要更多的空间技能， 活动范围较小的动物。 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 它们的差异主要在于范围大小和繁殖能力， 战略布局 有些物种是一夫多妻制，其他一夫一妻制。 他 发现一夫多妻的物种有更大的活动范围， 近亲但一夫一妻制的物种。 高林博士 预测在一夫一妻制的物种中， 类似的范围大小，空间能力没有差异， 相反，在一夫多妻的物种中， 范围比女性大得多，他预测， 男性在实验室任务中的表现会比 女性 Gaulin博士将现场和实验室工作结合起来， 这个重要的问题。 个体雄性和 雌性田鼠的测量使用无线电遥测技术， 用微型无线电发射器和 跟踪他们的行踪 跟随田野 他再次捕获这些动物并测量它们的迷宫- 实验室学习能力。 目前的补助金支持是 让他继续这些研究，最初由国家科学基金会资助 授予BNS 85-08436。 这些正在进行的研究的结果将 提供对生态学具有根本重要性的信息， 学习理论，并可能最终提高我们的知识 影响人类学习能力的因素。

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.