Women's preferences for men's masculinized faces and voices were assessed after women (n ... more Women's preferences for men's masculinized faces and voices were assessed after women (n = 331) were primed with images of male-on-male aggression, male-on-female aggression, pathogens, and neutral scenes. Male-on-male aggression and pathogen primes were associated with increased preference for masculine traits, but the same effect emerged in the neutral condition. We show the increased preference for masculine traits was due to repeated exposure to these traits, not the priming images themselves. Images of male-on-female aggression were an exception; these elicited feelings of disgust and anger appeared to disrupt the preference for masculinized traits. The results suggest women process men's facial and vocal traits as signals of aggressive potential and lose any preference for these traits with cues indicating men might direct this aggression toward them.
Children's gains in problem-solving skills during the elementary school years are characteriz... more Children's gains in problem-solving skills during the elementary school years are characterized by shifts in the mix of problem-solving approaches, with inefficient procedural strategies being gradually replaced with direct retrieval of domain-relevant facts. We used a well-established procedure for strategy assessment during arithmetic problem solving to investigate the neural basis of this critical transition. We indexed behavioral strategy use by focusing on the retrieval frequency and examined changes in brain activity and connectivity associated with retrieval fluency during arithmetic problem solving in second- and third-grade (7- to 9-year-old) children. Children with higher retrieval fluency showed elevated signal in the right hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), lingual gyrus (LG), fusiform gyrus (FG), left ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC), bilateral dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), and posterior angular gyrus. Critically, these effects were not confounded by individual differen...
This commentary focuses on one of the many issues raised in Geary's target article: the impor... more This commentary focuses on one of the many issues raised in Geary's target article: the importance of gender differences in spatial ability to gender differences in mathematics. I argue that the evidence for the central role of spatial ability in mathematical ability, or in gender differences in it, is tenuous at best.
Groups of first-grade (mean age=82 months), third-grade (mean age=107 months), and fifth-grade (m... more Groups of first-grade (mean age=82 months), third-grade (mean age=107 months), and fifth-grade (mean age=131 months) children with a learning disability in mathematics (MD, n=58) and their normally achieving peers (n=91) were administered tasks that assessed their knowledge of counting principles, working memory, and the strategies used to solve simple (4 + 3) and complex (16 + 8) addition problems. In all grades, the children with MD showed a working memory deficit, and in first grade, the children with MD used less sophisticated strategies and committed more errors while solving simple and complex addition problems. The group differences in strategy usage and accuracy were related, in part, to the group difference in working memory and to group and individual differences in counting knowledge. Across grade-level and group, the switch from simple to complex addition problems resulted in a shift in the mix of problem-solving strategies. Individual differences in the strategy mix and...
First- to fifth-grade mathematics and word reading achievement were assessed for children with ma... more First- to fifth-grade mathematics and word reading achievement were assessed for children with mathematical learning disability (MLD, n = 16), persistent low achievement (LA, n = 29), and typical achievement (n = 132). Intelligence, working memory, processing speed, and in-class attention were assessed in 2 or more grades, and mathematical cognition was assessed with experimental tasks in all grades. The MLD group was characterized by low school-entry mathematics achievement and poor word reading skills. The former was mediated by poor fluency in processing or accessing quantities associated with small sets of objects and corresponding Arabic numerals, whereas the latter was mediated by slow automatized naming of letters and numbers. Both the MLD and LA groups showed slow across-grade growth in mathematics achievement. Group differences in growth were mediated by deficits or delays in fluency of number processing, the ability to retrieve basic facts from long-term memory and to deco...
Women's preferences for men's masculinized faces and voices were assessed after women (n ... more Women's preferences for men's masculinized faces and voices were assessed after women (n = 331) were primed with images of male-on-male aggression, male-on-female aggression, pathogens, and neutral scenes. Male-on-male aggression and pathogen primes were associated with increased preference for masculine traits, but the same effect emerged in the neutral condition. We show the increased preference for masculine traits was due to repeated exposure to these traits, not the priming images themselves. Images of male-on-female aggression were an exception; these elicited feelings of disgust and anger appeared to disrupt the preference for masculinized traits. The results suggest women process men's facial and vocal traits as signals of aggressive potential and lose any preference for these traits with cues indicating men might direct this aggression toward them.
Children's gains in problem-solving skills during the elementary school years are characteriz... more Children's gains in problem-solving skills during the elementary school years are characterized by shifts in the mix of problem-solving approaches, with inefficient procedural strategies being gradually replaced with direct retrieval of domain-relevant facts. We used a well-established procedure for strategy assessment during arithmetic problem solving to investigate the neural basis of this critical transition. We indexed behavioral strategy use by focusing on the retrieval frequency and examined changes in brain activity and connectivity associated with retrieval fluency during arithmetic problem solving in second- and third-grade (7- to 9-year-old) children. Children with higher retrieval fluency showed elevated signal in the right hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), lingual gyrus (LG), fusiform gyrus (FG), left ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC), bilateral dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), and posterior angular gyrus. Critically, these effects were not confounded by individual differen...
This commentary focuses on one of the many issues raised in Geary's target article: the impor... more This commentary focuses on one of the many issues raised in Geary's target article: the importance of gender differences in spatial ability to gender differences in mathematics. I argue that the evidence for the central role of spatial ability in mathematical ability, or in gender differences in it, is tenuous at best.
Groups of first-grade (mean age=82 months), third-grade (mean age=107 months), and fifth-grade (m... more Groups of first-grade (mean age=82 months), third-grade (mean age=107 months), and fifth-grade (mean age=131 months) children with a learning disability in mathematics (MD, n=58) and their normally achieving peers (n=91) were administered tasks that assessed their knowledge of counting principles, working memory, and the strategies used to solve simple (4 + 3) and complex (16 + 8) addition problems. In all grades, the children with MD showed a working memory deficit, and in first grade, the children with MD used less sophisticated strategies and committed more errors while solving simple and complex addition problems. The group differences in strategy usage and accuracy were related, in part, to the group difference in working memory and to group and individual differences in counting knowledge. Across grade-level and group, the switch from simple to complex addition problems resulted in a shift in the mix of problem-solving strategies. Individual differences in the strategy mix and...
First- to fifth-grade mathematics and word reading achievement were assessed for children with ma... more First- to fifth-grade mathematics and word reading achievement were assessed for children with mathematical learning disability (MLD, n = 16), persistent low achievement (LA, n = 29), and typical achievement (n = 132). Intelligence, working memory, processing speed, and in-class attention were assessed in 2 or more grades, and mathematical cognition was assessed with experimental tasks in all grades. The MLD group was characterized by low school-entry mathematics achievement and poor word reading skills. The former was mediated by poor fluency in processing or accessing quantities associated with small sets of objects and corresponding Arabic numerals, whereas the latter was mediated by slow automatized naming of letters and numbers. Both the MLD and LA groups showed slow across-grade growth in mathematics achievement. Group differences in growth were mediated by deficits or delays in fluency of number processing, the ability to retrieve basic facts from long-term memory and to deco...
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