Processes underlying sex differences in route-learning strategies in children and adolescents

Cognitive processes underlying sex differences in route-learning strategies were investigated in children and adolescents using a direction-giving paradigm based on a novel map. Sex differences in object memory and spatial perception tasks were found in children as young as 9 years of age although differences in route-learning strategies did not emerge until 12 years of age. This was followed by sex-specific patterns of cognitive processes underlying route-learning strategies in adolescents, suggesting that route-learning strategies emanate from different spatial processes. Results are consistent with the notion of specialized spatial processes in males and females, presumed to be the products of differential evolutionary pressures related to the division of labour.