Abstract：
Previous research has extensively documented sex differences favoring boys in various domains of spatial cognition. However, relatively little research has examined sex differences in children\'s direction giving. The current study aimed to bridge this gap. A total of 143 children aged 3 to 10 years were asked to describe and recall routes from survey perspectives (via maps) and route perspectives (via videos). Significant sex effects (favoring boys) in direction-giving accuracy were found in describing route trials. However, boys and girls did not differ in the frequency of utterances encoding landmarks and direction of turns, suggesting that the quality rather than the quantity of words played a more important role in explaining sex differences. In addition, there was no sex difference in the route recall task. Although accuracy was overall higher in the map condition than in the video condition, it did not moderate sex differences. Overall, our study showed a robust sex difference in direction giving, which has important theoretical implications for understanding the development of human sex differences and critical clinical implications for designing training programs to improve children\'s spatial cognition.
摘要：
先前的研究已经广泛记录了性别差异，有利于男孩在空间认知的各个领域。然而,相对较少的研究研究了儿童方向给予的性别差异。目前的研究旨在弥合这一差距。总共要求143名3至10岁的儿童从调查角度（通过地图）和路线角度（通过视频）描述和回忆路线。在描述路线试验中发现了在方向给出准确性方面的显着性别影响（有利于男孩）。然而,男孩和女孩在编码地标的话语频率和转弯方向上没有差异，这表明单词的质量而不是数量在解释性别差异方面起了更重要的作用。此外,路线回忆任务没有性别差异。尽管在地图条件下的准确性总体上高于在视频条件下，它没有缓和性别差异。总的来说,我们的研究表明，在方向给予方面存在强烈的性别差异，这对于理解人类性别差异的发展具有重要的理论意义，对于设计训练计划以改善儿童的空间认知具有重要的临床意义。
