Sex differences in spatial cognition: A critical test of the "hunter-gatherer" theory.

The present study tested two predictions of the “hunter-gatherer” theory of sex differences in spatial cognition. According to this theory, men and women have faced different evolutionary pressures on their spatial capacities (Ridley 1994). On average, males are hence expected to exhibit better navigational capacities than females (Martin 1998), while females can be assumed to exhibit better incidental object location memory capacities than males (Silverman & Eals 1992, Eals & Silverman 1994). Our study directly addressed this alleged pattern of sexual dimorphism in spatial abilities using (1) a spatial navigation task involving the exploration of a computer-based 3D virtual environment developed by Martin (1998); and (2) an exact replication of the object location memory task developed by Eals et al. (1994), involving pseudo-objects in order to reduce contamination by verbal encoding strategies. Results replicated the well-established male advantage in spatial navigation, while showing an unexpected female disadvantage in incidental object location memory. Further research is thus needed to explore the assumed female advantage in object location memory.