B
Betsy
Guest
"CliffB" <fleer@gosympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:a888b95b-4487-4fd8-9834-c1049f212770@s19g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> Women and gay men are 'worst drivers'
> By Sarah Radford and agencies
> Last Updated: 2:25am GMT 04/01/2008
>
> Have your say Read comments
>
> Women and gay men are likely to be the worst drivers, a new study has
> shown.
>
>
>
> Be afraid: Women or gay men could be behind the wheel of any car
> Research has revealed that both perform poorly in tasks involving
> navigation and spatial awareness when compared to heterosexual men.
>
> Psychologists at Queen Mary, University of London, who conducted the
> study, believe the findings mean driving in a strange environment
> would be more difficult for gay men and women than for straight male
> motorists.
>
> Both tend to rely on local landmarks to get around, and are also
> slower to take in spatial information.
>
> The computer-based tests were carried out on 140 volunteers, and
> demonstrated that gay men, straight women and lesbians navigated in a
> similar way, sharing the same weaknesses.
>
> The results back earlier studies supporting the stereotype that women
> are poor navigators.
>
> Although women are more successful in tests requiring them to remember
> the position of objects, men consistently do better in tasks requiring
> navigation and uncovering hidden objects.
>
> The research team, led by Dr Qazi Rahman, used virtual reality
> simulations of two common tests of spatial learning and memory
> developed at Yale University.
>
> In one, volunteers had to swim through an underwater maze to find a
> hidden platform, while the second involved exploring radial arms
> projecting from a central junction to receive 'rewards' .
>
> Dr Rahman said: "Men are good at using distal, or geometrical cues, to
> decide if they're going north or south, for instance. They have a
> better basic sense of direction, but they can use local land marks as
> well.
>
> "Driving in a novel environment which is poor in cues is where these
> differences are likely to show up most.
>
> "Women are going to take a lot longer to reach their destination,
> making more errors, taking wrong turns etc. They need more rich local
> landmarks."
>
> Dr Rahman added that a similar performance between gay and straight
> men in the radial arms test showed that the divisions between sexual
> groups were not straightforward.
>
> "Gay people appear to show a 'mosaic' of performance, parts of which
> are male-like and other parts of which are female-like," he said.
What do you know. My husband is gay. And I am a man. 25 years and I am
just now finding out.
Betsy
news:a888b95b-4487-4fd8-9834-c1049f212770@s19g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> Women and gay men are 'worst drivers'
> By Sarah Radford and agencies
> Last Updated: 2:25am GMT 04/01/2008
>
> Have your say Read comments
>
> Women and gay men are likely to be the worst drivers, a new study has
> shown.
>
>
>
> Be afraid: Women or gay men could be behind the wheel of any car
> Research has revealed that both perform poorly in tasks involving
> navigation and spatial awareness when compared to heterosexual men.
>
> Psychologists at Queen Mary, University of London, who conducted the
> study, believe the findings mean driving in a strange environment
> would be more difficult for gay men and women than for straight male
> motorists.
>
> Both tend to rely on local landmarks to get around, and are also
> slower to take in spatial information.
>
> The computer-based tests were carried out on 140 volunteers, and
> demonstrated that gay men, straight women and lesbians navigated in a
> similar way, sharing the same weaknesses.
>
> The results back earlier studies supporting the stereotype that women
> are poor navigators.
>
> Although women are more successful in tests requiring them to remember
> the position of objects, men consistently do better in tasks requiring
> navigation and uncovering hidden objects.
>
> The research team, led by Dr Qazi Rahman, used virtual reality
> simulations of two common tests of spatial learning and memory
> developed at Yale University.
>
> In one, volunteers had to swim through an underwater maze to find a
> hidden platform, while the second involved exploring radial arms
> projecting from a central junction to receive 'rewards' .
>
> Dr Rahman said: "Men are good at using distal, or geometrical cues, to
> decide if they're going north or south, for instance. They have a
> better basic sense of direction, but they can use local land marks as
> well.
>
> "Driving in a novel environment which is poor in cues is where these
> differences are likely to show up most.
>
> "Women are going to take a lot longer to reach their destination,
> making more errors, taking wrong turns etc. They need more rich local
> landmarks."
>
> Dr Rahman added that a similar performance between gay and straight
> men in the radial arms test showed that the divisions between sexual
> groups were not straightforward.
>
> "Gay people appear to show a 'mosaic' of performance, parts of which
> are male-like and other parts of which are female-like," he said.
What do you know. My husband is gay. And I am a man. 25 years and I am
just now finding out.
Betsy
