[Paleopsych] Ha'va'd Crimson: Pinker on Summers plus articles on sex differences
Premise Checker
checker at panix.com
Sun Feb 6 17:03:38 UTC 2005
Pinker on Summers plus articles on sex differences
http://www.thecrimson.com/printerfriendly.aspx?ref=505366
Originally published on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 in the
News section of The Harvard Crimson.
PSYCHOANALYSIS Q-and-A: Steven Pinker
By
In an e-mail exchange with The Crimson yesterday, Johnstone Professor
of Psychology Steven Pinker, who teaches the popular spring core class
"The Human Mind," opined on the latest flap over President Summers'
comments on women in science.
CRIMSON: From what psychologists know, is there ample evidence to
support the hypothesis that a difference in "innate ability" accounts
for the under-representation of women on science faculties?
PINKER: First, let's be clear what the hypothesis is--every one of
Summers' critics has misunderstood it. The hypothesis is, first, that
the statistical distributions of men's and women's quantitative and
spatial abilities are not identical--that the average for men may be a
bit higher than the average for women, and that the variance for men
might be a bit higher than the variance for women (both implying that
there would be a slightly higher proportion of men at the high end of
the scale). It does not mean that all men are better at quantitative
abilities than all women! That's why it would be immoral and illogical
to discriminate against individual women even if it were shown that
some of the statistidcal differences were innate.
Second, the hypothesis is that differences in abilities might be one
out of several factors that explain differences in the statistical
representation of men and women in various professions. It does not
mean that it is the only factor. Still, if it is one factor, we cannot
reflexively assume that different statistical representation of men
and women in science and engineering is itself proof of
discrimination. Incidentally, another sign that we are dealing with a
taboo is that when it comes to this issue, ordinarily intelligent
scientists suddenly lose their ability to think quantitatively and
warp statistical hypotheses into crude dichotomies.
As far as the evidence is concerned, I'm not sure what "ample" means,
but there is certainly enough evidence for the hypothesis to be taken
seriously.
For example, quantitative and spatial skills vary within a gender
according to levels of sex hormones. And in samples of gifted students
who are given every conceivable encouragement to excel in science and
math, far more men than women expressed an interest in pursuing
science and math.
CRIMSON: Were President Summers' remarks within the pale of legitimate
academic discourse?
PINKER: Good grief, shouldn't everything be within the pale of
legitimate academic discourse, as long as it is presented with some
degree of rigor? That's the difference between a university and a
madrassa.
CRIMSON: Would it be normal to hear a similar set of hypotheses
presented and considered at a conference of psychologists?
PINKER: Some psychologists are still offended by such hypotheses, but
yes, they could certainly be considered at most major conferences in
scientific psychology.
CRIMSON: Finally, did you personally find President Summers' remarks
(or what you've heard/read of them) to be offensive?
PINKER: Look, the truth cannot be offensive. Perhaps the hypothesis is
wrong, but how would we ever find out whether it is wrong if it is
"offensive" even to consider it? People who storm out of a meeting at
the mention of a hypothesis, or declare it taboo or offensive without
providing arguments or evidence, don't get the concept of a university
or free inquiry.
-----------
Today at UCI: Press Releases:
http://today.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=1261
University of California, Irvine
Release
Intelligence in men and women is a gray and white matter
Men and women use different brain areas to achieve similar IQ results,
UCI study finds
Irvine, Calif. , January 20, 2005
While there are essentially no disparities in general intelligence
between the sexes, a UC Irvine study has found significant differences
in brain areas where males and females manifest their intelligence.
The study shows women having more white matter and men more gray
matter related to intellectual skill, revealing that no single
neuroanatomical structure determines general intelligence and that
different types of brain designs are capable of producing equivalent
intellectual performance.
"These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different
types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior," said
Richard Haier, professor of psychology in the Department of Pediatrics
and longtime human intelligence researcher, who led the study with
colleagues at UCI and the University of New Mexico. "In addition, by
pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the
potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment
diseases in the brain."
Study results appear on the online version of NeuroImage.
In general, men have approximately 6.5 times the amount of gray matter
related to general intelligence than women, and women have nearly 10
times the amount of white matter related to intelligence than men.
Gray matter represents information processing centers in the brain,
and white matter represents the networking of - or connections between
- these processing centers.
This, according to Rex Jung, a UNM neuropsychologist and co-author of
the study, may help to explain why men tend to excel in tasks
requiring more local processing (like mathematics), while women tend
to excel at integrating and assimilating information from distributed
gray-matter regions in the brain, such as required for language
facility. These two very different neurological pathways and activity
centers, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad
measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence
tests.
The study also identified regional differences with intelligence. For
example, 84 percent of gray-matter regions and 86 percent of
white-matter regions involved with intellectual performance in women
were found in the brain's frontal lobes, compared to 45 percent and
zero percent for males, respectively. The gray matter driving male
intellectual performance is distributed throughout more of the brain.
According to the researchers, this more centralized intelligence
processing in women is consistent with clinical findings that frontal
brain injuries can be more detrimental to cognitive performance in
women than men. Studies such as these, Haier and Jung add, someday may
help lead to earlier diagnoses of brain disorders in males and
females, as well as more effective and precise treatment protocols to
address damage to particular regions in the brain.
For this study, UCI and UNM combined their respective neuroimaging
technology and subject pools to study brain morphology with magnetic
resonance imaging. MRI scanning and cognitive testing involved
subjects at UCI and UNM. Using a technique called voxel-based
morphometry, Haier and his UCI colleagues converted these MRI pictures
into structural brain "maps" that correlated brain tissue volume with
IQ.
Dr. Michael T. Alkire and Kevin Head of UCI and Ronald A. Yeo of UNM
participated in the study, which was supported in part by the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
About the University of California, Irvine: The University of
California, Irvine is a top-ranked public university dedicated to
research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is
among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more
than 24,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400
faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County,
UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3 billion.
[38]Frontal views of the human brain. Click on image for comparison
with men's brains. Frontal views of the human brain. Click on image
for comparison with men's brains.
[39]Side views of the human brain. Click on image for comparison with
women's brains. Side views of the human brain. Click on image for
comparison with women's brains.
Contact
Tom Vasich
(949) 824-6455
References
37. http://today.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=1261#top
38. javascript:openWin('image.asp?section=press_release%E2%84%91_name=050120Haier_fig1_lg.jpg')
39. javascript:openWin('image.asp?section=press_release%E2%84%91_name=050120Haier_fig2_lg.jpg')
40. mailto:tmvasich at uci.edu
------------
ScienceDirect - NeuroImage :
The neuroanatomy of general intelligence: sex matters
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_aset=B-WA-A-W-B-MsSAYVW-UUA-AAUEUVUYZA-AAUZZWAZZA-YDWBBCAUV-B-U&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_udi=B6WNP-4F8BF5H-1&_coverDate=01%2F16%2F2005&_cdi=6968&_orig=search&_st=13&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050264&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1010281&md5=53c9e09352873e1138427193865946e5
Rapid Communication
The neuroanatomy of general intelligence: sex matters
Richard J. Haier[23]^a^, [24]^Corresponding Author Contact Information
^, [25]^E-mail The Corresponding Author , Rex E. Jung[26]^b, Ronald A.
Yeo[27]^c, Kevin Head[28]^a and Michael T. Alkire[29]^d
^aDepartment of Pediatrics, University of California, Med. Sci. I,
B140, Irvine, CA 92697-5000, USA
^bDepartment of Neurology and MIND Institute, University of New
Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
^cDepartment of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
87131, USA
^dDepartment of Anesthesiology, University of California Irvine
Medical Center, Bldg. 53, 104B, Orange, CA 92868-1350, USA
Received 21 October 2004; revised 4 November 2004; accepted 9
November 2004. Available online 16 January 2005.
Abstract
We examined the relationship between structural brain variation and
general intelligence using voxel-based morphometric analysis of MRI
data in men and women with equivalent IQ scores. Compared to men,
women show more white matter and fewer gray matter areas related to
intelligence. In men IQ/gray matter correlations are strongest in
frontal and parietal lobes (BA 8, 9, 39, 40), whereas the strongest
correlations in women are in the frontal lobe (BA10) along with
Broca's area. Men and women apparently achieve similar IQ results with
different brain regions, suggesting that there is no singular
underlying neuroanatomical structure to general intelligence and that
different types of brain designs may manifest equivalent intellectual
performance.
Keywords: Neuroanatomy; General intelligence; Sex
[30]^Corresponding Author Contact Information Corresponding author.
Fax: +1 949 854 1989.
Note to users: The section "Articles in Press" contains peer reviewed
and accepted articles to be published in this journal. When the final
article is assigned to an issue of the journal, the "Article in Press"
version will be removed from this section and will appear in the
associated journal issue. Please be aware that "Articles in Press" do
not have all bibliographic details available yet.
There are two types of "Articles in Press":
* Uncorrected proofs: these are articles that are not yet finalized
and that will be corrected by the authors. Therefore the text
could change before final publication. Uncorrected proofs may be
temporarily unavailable for production reasons.
* Corrected proofs: these are articles containing the authors'
corrections. The content of the article will usually remain
unchanged, and possible further corrections are fairly minor.
Typically the only difference with the finally published article
is that specific issue and page numbers have not yet been
assigned.
References
23. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_aset=B-WA-A-W-B-MsSAYVW-UUA-AAUEUVUYZA-AAUZZWAZZA-YDWBBCAUV-B-U&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_udi=B6WNP-4F8BF5H-1&_coverDate=01%2F16%2F2005&_cdi=6968&_orig=search&_st=13&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050264&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1010281&md5=53c9e09352873e1138427193865946e5#aff1
24. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_aset=B-WA-A-W-B-MsSAYVW-UUA-AAUEUVUYZA-AAUZZWAZZA-YDWBBCAUV-B-U&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_udi=B6WNP-4F8BF5H-1&_coverDate=01%2F16%2F2005&_cdi=6968&_orig=search&_st=13&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050264&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1010281&md5=53c9e09352873e1138427193865946e5#cor1
25. mailto:rjhaier at uci.edu
26. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_aset=B-WA-A-W-B-MsSAYVW-UUA-AAUEUVUYZA-AAUZZWAZZA-YDWBBCAUV-B-U&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_udi=B6WNP-4F8BF5H-1&_coverDate=01%2F16%2F2005&_cdi=6968&_orig=search&_st=13&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050264&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1010281&md5=53c9e09352873e1138427193865946e5#aff2
27. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_aset=B-WA-A-W-B-MsSAYVW-UUA-AAUEUVUYZA-AAUZZWAZZA-YDWBBCAUV-B-U&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_udi=B6WNP-4F8BF5H-1&_coverDate=01%2F16%2F2005&_cdi=6968&_orig=search&_st=13&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050264&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1010281&md5=53c9e09352873e1138427193865946e5#aff3
28. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_aset=B-WA-A-W-B-MsSAYVW-UUA-AAUEUVUYZA-AAUZZWAZZA-YDWBBCAUV-B-U&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_udi=B6WNP-4F8BF5H-1&_coverDate=01%2F16%2F2005&_cdi=6968&_orig=search&_st=13&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050264&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1010281&md5=53c9e09352873e1138427193865946e5#aff1
29. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_aset=B-WA-A-W-B-MsSAYVW-UUA-AAUEUVUYZA-AAUZZWAZZA-YDWBBCAUV-B-U&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_udi=B6WNP-4F8BF5H-1&_coverDate=01%2F16%2F2005&_cdi=6968&_orig=search&_st=13&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050264&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1010281&md5=53c9e09352873e1138427193865946e5#aff4
30. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_aset=B-WA-A-W-B-MsSAYVW-UUA-AAUEUVUYZA-AAUZZWAZZA-YDWBBCAUV-B-U&_rdoc=1&_fmt=summary&_udi=B6WNP-4F8BF5H-1&_coverDate=01%2F16%2F2005&_cdi=6968&_orig=search&_st=13&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050264&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1010281&md5=53c9e09352873e1138427193865946e5#bcor1
-----------
BBC NEWS | Health | Bad driving 'linked to hormones'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4202199.stm
Car park
Parked by a man or a woman?
Spatial skills such as map reading and parking may be difficult for
some women because they had too little testosterone in the womb.
Some men have long held that women are deficient in these skills.
Scientists from the University of Giessen, Germany, writing in the
journal Intelligence found a lack of the hormone affects spatial
ability.
Low testosterone levels are also linked to shorter wedding ring
fingers, they say.
The research looked at the spatial, numerical and verbal skills of 40
student volunteers.
Men do seem to be better at spatial abilities, and women at verbal and
emotional skills
Dr Nick Neave, British Psychological Society
Spatial skill is the ability to assess and orientate shapes and
spaces. Map reading and parking are spatial skills which men often say
women lack. Women tend to disagree.
The researchers also looked at the length of the students' wedding and
index fingers.
In women, the two fingers are usually almost equal in length, as
measured from the crease nearest the palm to the fingertip. In men,
the ring finger tends to be much longer than the index.
For one of the spatial tests, volunteers had to tell which of five
drawings could not be rotated so it looked like the other four.
The other test involved the ability to think in 3D by mentally
"unfolding" a complex shape.
Overall, men achieved higher scores in the tests than women.
But women with the male pattern of finger length did better than those
whose wedding finger was shorter.
They also scored better on the numerical tests.
Fertility
Writing in Intelligence, the researchers, led by Dr Petra Kempel, said
women who had 'male-like' finger length ratio patterns outperformed
other women.
They added that the differences seen within the group studied were
"remarkable."
However, the researchers accept that their study was limited because
only one saliva sample was taken from each person, and no detailed
account was taken of women's menstrual cycle, which can affect hormone
balance.
Other studies looking at finger length ratio have suggested that, in
men a long ring finger and symmetrical hands are an indication of
fertility, and that women are more likely to be fertile if they have a
longer index finger.
Another study controversially suggested that finger length ratio could
also be linked to sexual orientation, with lesbian women having a
greater difference in length between their ring finger and index
finger than straight women do.
Dr Nick Neave, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of
Northumbria who specialises in spatial awareness and gender
differences.
He said: "Being exposed to testosterone early on does seem to affect
the way the brain works.
"It seems to push it to work in a more masculine way, with a stronger
right hemisphere; the spatial hemisphere.
"The extra testosterone also appears to cause the ring finger to be
longer than the index."
Bones contain testosterone receptors, and Dr Neave said the fourth
finger appeared to be particularly receptive to levels of the hormone.
Higher levels are linked the ring finger being longer than the index.
Dr Neave, a member of the British Psychological Society, added: "The
sexes do use different skills to find their way around. Men seem to be
able to keep the route in their head without landmarks, whereas women
do use them.
"So men may be better at finding the car when its parked in a huge
shopping centre car-park. It may also tap into driving and parking
abilities."
He added: "Men do seem to be better at spatial abilities, and women at
verbal and emotional skills.
"It may be a generalisation, but that does seem to be the case."
But Dr David Gray of the Department of Philosophy at Harvard
University, said: "Correlation between genetic features and skills may
often have an environmental intermediary which determines performance
at a given skill."
He suggested skilled drivers may be those who are more practised at
the activity. In addition, he said people with longer ring fingers may
have dominating personalities and therefore do more driving.
"This practice would make them better at these activities and would be
correlated with a physical feature, but not caused by it."
SEE ALSO:
[45]Finger length heart attack clue
22 Oct 01 | Health
[46]A finger on sexuality
29 Mar 00 | Sci/Tech
RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
[47]University of Giessen - in German
[48]British Psychological Society
References
45. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1613066.stm
46. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/695142.stm
47. http://www.uni-giessen.de/uni/
48. http://www.bps.org.uk/
More information about the paleopsych
mailing list