Girls have been faster learners - for 6 million years

A study of wild chimpanzees has provided evidence that girls have been faster learners than boys for six million years.

Researchers discovered clear gender differences in the way that young male and female chimps learn skills from their mothers.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, mirror the contrasts in the learning abilities of human children, say the scientists behind the study.

Professor Elizabeth Lonsdorf, of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, said it suggested that young girls' superiority over boys in the classroom may date back to the last common ancestor of chimps and humans, about six million years ago.

Prof Lonsdorf's four-year study of the apes in Tanzania's Gombe National Park watched eight young males and six young females learn from their mothers on how to use sticks to fish for termites.

Female youngsters enjoyed more success than males in the pursuit and mastered the task quicker as they picked up the skill at around 30-months-old whereas most of the males were twice as old as that.

The difference was down to the greater attentiveness on the females' part as they spent more time closely watching their mother. Their technique was more similar to the mother's, even in the depths to which they inserted the sticks in the termite nests.

"Whatever pattern a mother showed, her daughter matched it almost exactly", said Prof Lonsdorf.

The male chimps in the study had shorter attention spans and spent more time wrestling with each other and swinging in trees, the scientists said.

They concluded that the study adds to evidence that sex differences in learning have been in existence longer than the classroom.

You go girls

[CNCadmin]

Boy ur on a roll of useless info today aren't ya, keep it coming, good buddy.

[Jennifer]

Originally posted by WallCrawler The male chimps in the study had shorter attention spans and spent more time wrestling with each other and swinging in trees, the scientists said.

Why doesn't this surprise me....I think I know these guys.

[teilhardo]

So with this in mind, why can't we try and recruit more women to groups like this? I have met young women that are at LEAST as smart as their male counterparts (remember the chimpanzee's swinging from trees allegory ) but at least in my internet experience for science and engineering forums, I have met almost none that are interested in the subject. That is the question to ask: Why does society shape humanity so that both genders have cliched interests?
Moral: lets get those smart women out there involved in CNC

[doug6949]

Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, Bo Derek, and now Elizabeth Lonsdorf. What is it with women and monkeys?

[doug6949]

Originally posted by teilhardo Moral: lets get those smart women out there involved in CNC

That would give us more time to spend swinging in the trees.

[Rekd]

Originally posted by doug6949 That would give us more time to spend swinging in the trees.

LMAO!!

'Rekd

[mvaughn]

Originally posted by WallCrawler The difference was down to the greater attentiveness on the females' part as they spent more time closely watching their mother. Their technique was more similar to the mother's, even in the depths to which they inserted the sticks in the termite nests. "Whatever pattern a mother showed, her daughter matched it almost exactly", said Prof Lonsdorf. The male chimps in the study had shorter attention spans and spent more time wrestling with each other and swinging in trees, the scientists said. [/B]

All this means is that us guys have different priorities...

[Rekd]

Originally posted by mvaughn All this means is that us guys have different priorities...

Yeah, like swinging from trees!

Originally posted by Rekd Yeah, like swinging from trees!

lol

[mvaughn]

Originally posted by Rekd Yeah, like swinging from trees!

They don't have many CNC machines out in the jungle... no place to plug em' in.

[Konstantin]

Due biological and neurological differences in male and females brains there are different capacities and abilities.

Barbara Pease and Allan Pease wrote this book "Why men don't listen and woman cant read maps" in wich they talk about various differences between male and female brains and therefore the way they are.

Very interesting reading. Other book by the same author is the "Body language" another eye opening (mostly for males) book wich helps you to pay attention and learn to correctly translate body language or non verbal communication, which is by the way bears about 80 percent of the meaning of the communication, verbal is only 10 something percent.


Konstantin.