44 research outputs found
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Sex differences in visual-spatial ability: Components of cognitive processing
Gender effects in spatial orientation: cognitive profiles and mental strategies
Experimental evidence and meta-analyses offer some support for gender-related differences in visuo-spatial ability. However, few studies addressed this issue in an ecological context and/or in everyday tasks implying spatial abilities, such as geographical orientation. Moreover, the relation of specific strategies and gender is still unclear. In the present investigation, we compared men and women in a newly designed battery of spatial orientation tasks in which landmark, route and survey knowledge were considered. In addition, four visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) tasks were presented. Significant differences favouring men in VSWM tasks were reported, supporting existing evidence. However, men and women did not significantly differ in orientation tasks performance. The patterns of correlation between working memory and spatial orientation tasks indicated that men and women used somewhat different strategies in carrying out the orientation tasks. In particular, active processes seem to play a greater role in females' performance, thus confirming the importance of this variable in interpreting gender effect in VSWM tasks. Altogether, results indicate that gender effects could well result from differences in cognitive strategies and support data indicating that adequate training could reduce or eliminate them. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Gender Differences in Visuospatial Abilities and Complex Mathematical Problem Solving
Mathematical problem-solving and spatial visualization are areas in which performance
has been shown to vary with sex. This article describes the impact of gender on spatial
relations measured in 331 secondary school students (202 males, 129 females), 145
(105 males, 40 females) of whom had been selected to participate in a mathematical
talent stimulation project after passing a complex problem-solving test. In the two tests
administered, the Differential Aptitude Tests-Space Relations (DAT-SR) and the Primary
Mental Abilities-Space Relations (PMA-SR), performance was assessed on the grounds
of both absolute scores and the ratio to the number of items answered. The students
participating in the talent program earned higher scores on both tests, although no
interaction was identified between mathematical abilities and gender in connection
with the differences in spatial habilities observed. In PMA-SR, boys answered more
items and scored higher, whereas in DAT-SR girls tended to omit more items. None
of the indicators studied exhibited differences between the sexes in both tests and in
some cases the differences in the absolute values of the indicators were absent when
expressed as ratios
Art-based Rendering with Continuous Levels of Detail
In previous work [6], we presented an algorithm for rendering virtual scenes using art-based styles. We demonstrated the ability to render fur, grass, and trees in a stylized manner that evoked the complexity of these textures without representing all their components explicitly. We achieved this with stroke-based procedural textures that generated detail elements, or graftals, just as needed. Our implementation had several drawbacks. First, each new graftal texture required a procedural implementation that included writing code. Also, graftals were regenerated in each frame in a way that led to excessive introduction and elimination of graftals even for small changes in camera parameters. Lastly, our system provided no way to continuously vary the properties of graftals, including color, size, or stroke width. Such an ability could be used to achieve better frame-to-frame coherence, or more generally to animate graftals. In this paper, we present a new framework for graftal textures..