Male advantage in geometry learning? A preliminary study in rats

Abstract

Rats were successively trained in three unusual watermazes to find a hidden platform that always maintained a constant relationship with a distinctive corner of the apparatus (i.e., a triangular-shaped pool in Experiment 1, a rectangular-shaped pool in Experiment 2, and a kite-shaped pool in Experiment 3). After each training phase a test trial was conducted, without the platform. On test, in Experiment 1 the amount of time the rat spent in two different areas, one in front of the correct corner and one in exactly an opposite and incorrect corner was recorded. The experiment replicated previous results: a clear male advantage on geometry learning (Rodríguez et al., 2010, 2011). Additional measures were also employed in Experiments 2 and 3 and, in both experiments, the different measures of spatial learning gave quite different results. The male advantage found in Experiment 1 did not seem to generalize well to other geometries.

Keywords

• Geometry Learning
• Sex Differences
• Watermaze
• Rats