COGNITIVE ABILITIES OF

GENDERP R E S E N T E D BY S I D R A A F Z A L

N O S H E E N M U S H TA Q

DEFINITION OF COGNITION

The inner mental processes of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.

 That which comes to be known, as through perception, reasoning, or  intuition; knowledge.

This process is also called Cognition

EMOTIONS

Men tend to have larger Amygdala. Amygdala is the integrative center for emotions, emotional

behavior, and motivationSuch differences are small and highly influenced by the

environment, yet they have still been used to paint a binary picture of the human brain.

Eliot neuroscientist at Chicago Medical school

PROCESSING INFORMATION

Men brain contains more Grey matter (the dark, knobby tissue that contains the core of nerve cells) 

Female brain contains more white matter (the bundles of nerve fibers that transmit signals around the nervous system)

Daphna Joel, a behavioral neuroscientist at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

ULTIMATE COGNITIVE DIFFERENCESP S YC H O LO G I C A L A N D S O C I E TA L

1.WOMEN ARE THE ONLY ONES IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS.

Studies show that men mostly use their brain’s left hemisphere to process information, while women are more skilled at using both hemispheres. This would literally mean that women are the only ones in their right minds

2. MALES HAVE BIGGER BRAINS—WHICH DOESN’T MEAN THEY’RE SMARTER.

On average, guy brains are about 10 percent larger than gal brains. But this is probably because on average, guys are 10 percent larger than gals. Although males tend to do slightly better in math while females do slightly better with language, standardized intelligence tests show no statistically significant difference between males and females.

3. THE MALE BRAIN IS GEARED SLIGHTLY MORE TOWARD MATH.

Males tend to have much larger inferior-parietal lobules (IPL) than females. This area of the brain is thought to influence mathematical ability. The brain areas that are thought to control math and geometry skills mature in boys about four years earlier than in girls.

4. THE FEMALE BRAIN IS GEARED SLIGHTLY MORE TOWARD LANGUAGE

The frontal and temporal areas of the cortex are larger in females than in males. These brain areas are thought to influence language skills; they mature in girls about six years earlier than in boys.

 5. WOMEN ARE MORE EMOTIONAL, BUT WE ALL KNEW THAT ALREADY.

 Females have a larger hippocampus and a deeper limbic system than males, which allows them to feel the full range and depth of the emotional spectrum far more than those coldhearted, unfeeling jerk guys.

6. WOMEN FEEL MORE PAIN, BUT WE ALL KNEW THAT ALREADY, TOO.

Upon experiencing pain, men’s right amygdala is activated, while it’s the left amygdala in women. Since the left amygdala is more closely associated with “internal functions,” it is thought that this is why women experience pain more acutely than men do.

7. MEN TEND TO HAVE BETTER SPATIAL ABILITIES.

Men have a thinner parietal region of the brain than women, which makes it easier for them to visualize rotating 3D objects—assuming that’s your idea of a good time.

8. MEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER FROM NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS.

Males are more likely to be dyslexic and autistic than females. They are also more likely to suffer from ADHD and Tourette’s Syndrome.

9. WOMEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER FROM MOOD DISORDERS.

Male brains synthesize serotonin far more quickly than female brains, which may explain why women are far more prone to depression. Women are also far more likely to suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder after a traumatizing event.

10. MALE AND FEMALE FETUSES START SHOWING BRAIN DIFFERENCES AT AROUND 26 WEEKS.

At around the 26-week stage, girl fetuses generally start developing a thicker corpus callosum—the part of the brain that connects the left and right hemispheres—than boy fetuses. This may help explain the fact that women tend to use both hemispheres of the brain while men lean toward the left hemisphere.

11. WHEN IT COMES TO INTELLIGENCE, THERE ARE MORE MALE THAN FEMALE OUTLIERS.

Male IQ has greater variance than female IQ; in other words, while females cluster toward the middle, more males occupy the extreme high and low ends on the intelligence scale.

Stephen Hawking

SOME INTELLIGENT PEOPLE

I. Charles Dickens – IQ level: 165 (writer poet)

II. Raphael – IQ level: 170 (painter and architect)

III. Michael Faraday – IQ level:175 (electromagnetism, electrochemistry, faraday laws of induction)

12. WOMEN HANDLE STRESS BETTER THAN MEN.

Both males and females release the hormone oxytocin during stressful events. But female estrogen combines with oxytocin to produce a calming effect, whereas male testosterone only makes men more aggro.

13. MEN HAVE WEAKER IMPULSE CONTROL.

The brain areas that control aggression and anger are larger in women than in men, which may account for some degree in larger male rates of violence.

HELPERN CONTEXTUAL REASEARCHIt has been over reported that boys tend to do better at math

 while girls often excel at reading and writing. In truth, the degree of difference is context-dependent.

In school, girls tend to do better in all subjects, albeit by only about a quarter grade on a four-point scale, Halpern said, citing U.S.-focused research. Boys, on the other hand, tend to excel at tests that focus on areas outside their school's curriculum, she said.

GENDER-EQUAL SOCIATIES

In gender-equal societies, "the male advantage in math virtually disappears," Halpern said, but other differences grow. When given more equal encouragement and access to education, on average, girls become even better at reading than boys and boys further outstrip girls in visual-spatial tasks.

Economics also matter. "Being poor is not good for anyone's cognitive development," Halpern said.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUNDWhile the disadvantage may be staggering in the poorest

nations, it is true in developed countries as well. Halpern explained that while women outnumber men in college, it is primarily men from lower socio-economic brackets that are not getting degrees.

STEREOTYPICAL THOUGHTS

Why, for example, are more than 90 percent of CEOs male and more than 90 percent of secretaries female?

As long as women are doing most of the caretaking jobson society, Halpern told Live Science, such as taking care of young and elderly loved ones, they are going to occupy wage-earning jobs that require less time. (In addition to being a research psychologist, Halpern was the founding director of the Berger Institute for Work, Family and Children.)

INTEREST

• here is also an issue of interest, she said, in that many young women may not realize that being, say, an engineer can also be a "helping" job.

• As a society, we are not only losing talented women from the workplace, she added, we are also losing talented men in the domestic front. Men can be excellent caregivers, and numerous studies have shown the importance of fathering for children.

• "We can't have equality in work, if we don't have equality in the home," she said.