Science believes that men excel over women in some spatial skills and with virtual reality the differences would be reduced

Visual-spatial abilities are useful for drawing, buttoning a shirt, or planning a route.

Researchers point out that thanks to immersive technologies, skills that are disparate between men and women can be malleable

Know why men and women have different abilities In some tasks it is a controversial topic on which there is still no scientific consensus. One of the areas studied is that of visuospatial capabilities, in which various studies have shown that men excel in certain activities, such as mental rotations or spatial cognition egocentric –that in which the elements in space are located using the body itself as a reference instead of using other objects–. However, the causes are still unknown. According to one Editorial recently published in open access in the scientific journal Frontiers in Virtual Reality, the reason behind this difference It is not exclusively biological and can be changed through strategies that can eliminate that disparity.

La ability to form visuospatial images It is a cognitive skill required to move in space or to have depth and distance perception. This capability is useful, for example, for draw, button a shirt or make the bed. It also serves for plan a route and move through a space to a destination, through a “procedure based on sensorimotor information about an individual's position in space, the distances between the self and the object and self-movement, which allows a sequence of points of reference, turns and changes of direction that must be acquired, as well as a set of place-action associations that must be memorized.

Researchers from the Open University of Catalonia, the Universities of Barcelona and Zaragoza, from the Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón) and the Socioaddictions Care and Research Center of the Public Mental Health and Addictions Network of the Generalitat de Catalunya have concluded that differences between men and women in visuospatial abilities they are not immovable. Through interventions appropriate, ranging from training programs in Primary school girls and boys to spatial visualization courses in engineering students, significant improvements have been achieved. In some cases, these operations reduce gender gaps to the point of eliminating them in many space tasks.

"When the first studies highlighting the different spatial abilities by gender, the academic world, which also has its prejudices, turned to biological and evolutionary explanations,” explains MAgdalena Mendez Lopez, professor and researcher at the Department of Psychology and Sociology at the University of Zaragoza. “But, as we look closer, we see that the topic is more complex than it seems at first glance. Differences are very malleable. That is why it is important to investigate why they occur and if they can be eliminated since greater equality could be achieved and perhaps improve certain processes of cognitive decline,” he adds.

Virtual reality as a tool to reduce differences

One of the most striking aspects that stand out in the editorial is The role of virtual reality in improving spatial skills. The studies presented show how this technology provides an immersive environment that allows evaluating and improving the mental representation of cognitive maps and spatial orientation.

In this regard, Magdalena Mendez Lopez, researcher attached to the Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón) points out that the scientific community should explore the intentional use of virtual reality for training and exposure, taking advantage of its virtues to deliberately improve the understanding of spatial concepts. “An example of how virtual reality is a great resource to improve understanding and learning in educational environments and with spatial component concepts are studies with applications on anatomical structures. These applications allow complex structures to be visualized in an unparalleled, comfortable and enveloping way, which is why they benefit men and women equally.”

However, the researcher emphasizes that “it is also important to consider the possible differences between people accustomed or not accustomed to these technologies. Sometimes, due to game preferences, for example, boys have a greater degree of previous experience with video games, which makes them try experiences with virtual reality where you have to control spatial information in a more relaxed way, so they can take better advantage of those learning situations.” 

Virtual reality can also help study the prejudices that deepen the differences. By allowing the use of male and female avatars, or of different ages – child, young person, adult or elderly person – some research has explored the importance of stereotypes in the performance of functions with surprising results. Assume a gender, even if it is virtual, seems to have a effect at our answer's capacity.

“Unlike reading comprehension skills, visual-spatial skills are more associated with technical tasks such as those developed in Engineering or Architecture, with a strong logical-mathematical component and, therefore, it is assumed that since men are the majority in those areas, they are the ones who have that type of skills,” says Pierre Bourdin, professor and researcher in the Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications Studies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

"This type of beliefs and expectations social about intellectual skills of boys and girls They often function at an unconscious level, and are breeding ground for them to occur differences in academic performance, school dropout and failure, choice of studies and profession, hours of leisure and free time, among many other aspects. Without ignoring the weight of other sociocultural and contextual aspects that influence such differences to actually occur”, Milagros Sáinz, lead researcher of the Gender and ICT group, of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute of the UOC.

Research with social utility

The authors of the Frontiers in Virtual Reality publisher claim further research in this field in order to clarify the many questions still unresolved. In the biological field, several studies – some of them studying the differences between rats males and females in the laboratory – notice differences in the execution of certain spatial tasks but the specific causes are difficult to establish. On the sociocultural aspect, we also need to better understand the aspects that promote inequalities and the tools that can help reduce them.

Research in this field reveals the intricate nature of spatial abilities and their potential malleability. Despite the gender differences observed in the past, a possibility to change them. With various technologies at our disposal, we may soon reach the goal of reducing or eliminating gender disparities in spatial skills in girls and women compared to men. Furthermore, the discoveries for improve spatial skills They could also be useful for combat some cognitive impairments in diseases such as Alzheimer. All of these are advances that will benefit society as a whole.

Photo: Nick Seagrave / unsplash.com

Source: Zaragoza's University