Exploring Gender Differences in Spatial Orientation Ability on Representing Cognitive Map
This study examines that there are gender differences of spatial orientation skills in drawing cognitive maps which represent narrative space after reading a book. Because there was no previous research proposing specific way of measuring accuracy of spatial orientation skill in cognitive map, we propose a new experimental tool which helps interpret cognitive maps quantitatively in the aspect of spatial orientation ability. Result from this experiment shows there is no significant gender difference in recalling the number of places of narrative spaces. However, we found that men perform better than women in locating places accurately in cognitive map. This result provides evidence that men have better spatial orientation ability in representing cognitive map of narrative space. Finally, we discuss various possibilities of interpretation, the visuo spatial working memory (VSWM) span and systemizing information. The limitation will be discussed.