Kognitivne spolne razlike: jučer, danas, sutra

Cognitive gender differences are analyzed in this paper. The article covers major studies from early 20th century to the most recent studies of meta-analyses. It is focused on those studies whose aim was to investigate the differences in the g factor and closer intelligence factors dependent on gender. Studies investigating the varying development of intelligence in pre-adolescent and adolescent age groups in relation to gender are also presented. The paper clearly shows the problems faced by investigators in their attempts to measure intelligence and draw conclusions on the difference of intelligence between the sexes. The causes of inconsistency should be sought in different operationalizations of constructs on which comparisons are based. The only common conclusion is that males regularly show a greater distribution of intelligence measures, i.e. they are more evenly distributed at the ends of the scale, while females show a more narrow distribution curve. The only larger difference in favour of males is some visual-spatial abilities which are not showing any tendency to decrease. Some verbal abilities are more pronounced in women, with a trend toward the reduction of these differences. Cognitive gender differences are investigated more frequently in terms of cognitive processes and less as intelligence factors. Finally, the conclusion is that studies should focus on the search for similarities among the sexes, as 78% of meta-analyses yielded negligible differences and only 8% of cases revealed large differences.