jan@orc.olivetti.com (08/17/89)
[I changed the subject because the sex/gender one is worn out enough to not be meaningful anymore - MHN] There was news last year that boys show a *slight* difference in brain development at birth, that that difference is in the direction of left-handedness (i.e. the average boy has more in common with a left-handed person than the average girl does), and that this may account for improved spatial ability in boys. I know you (geb) responded to my previous mail, but I would like to know this: How would researchers expect to find math ability in: 1. Right-handed males 2. Right-handed females 3. Left-handed males 4. Left-handed females And have these expectations been bourne out? (This would be especially interesting in pre-adolescents, before girls learn that boys don't like you to be good in math) My father-in-law says he found more and more competition for left-handed desks as he got further and further in his math education. I know I use much the same thinking style for algebra that I used for translating a task my right- handed mother taught me into a left-handed procedure. And the best-appearing spatial ability in my current household is my right-handed daughter, and she is the ONLY right-handed one in the family, she must flip everything. She also is developing along traditionally male lines (neurologically, not socially), and seems driven to walk along the edges of curbs, etc, practicing balancing precariously, and is frustrated with small-motor-skills activities.