Group Project Proposal Bio Anthropology 101 Observations/Questions There are a number of stereotypes regarding differences between the

way that men and women think. One of these stereotypes is that men are better at reading and following maps than women, who are better with landmarks and directions. A number of studies have been done on this topic and most conclude that men have better abstract spatial thinking abilities, which consistently allows them to navigate better with a map than women, whereas women are able to recall and better use landmarks to locate a route. A 2003 study referenced in Whos better at giving directions, men or women?1 indicates that when asked to give directions, women tend to give directions that feature landmarks and left-or-right turns whereas men use compass directions and quantitative measurements. A 2007 study showed that women in farmers markets could more accurately than men point to food stalls they had visited that contained food items with high-energy content. This may support the theory that men evolved better innate orientation skills in the prehistoric past due to the tendency of males to be involved in the hunt, which required them to stray far from home, whereas females who were restricted by child-bearing to more sedentary foraging strategies found nearby nutritious fruits and plants via landmarks. However, other studies2 indicate that the presence of landmarks do not positively or negatively affect womens abilities to navigate a route. So, are these navigational differences a result of a sexual dimorphism with a basis in our evolutionary past, or do they simply indicate different levels of ability between men and women? A possible second component regards the differences in navigational abilities of people who are deaf or hard of hearing versus those who have regular hearing. The loss of one sense often allows a heightening of all the other senses, so would this include a better sense of direction? And if so, is this linked to genetics or is it an adaptive trait? Hypothesis Men will perform better than women (locate their target faster) when given a map, whereas women will perform better than men when given landmarks/directions. Men will most likely perform slightly better overall. Those who are hard of hearing will perform slightly better than those who have regular hearing.
1

Binns, Corey. "Whos Better at Giving Directions, Men or Women?" Popular Science. 28 February 2008. Online. 3 August 2009. 2 Gwinn HM, S Fernando, S James, and JF Wilson. "Do Landmarks Help or Hinder Women in Route Learning? " Perceptual and Motor Skills. 95. 3 (2002): 713-8.

Materials Sample of 40 = 20 men/20 women 4 stopwatches, one for each group member 4 sets of maps for Target 1 (see below) 4 sets of maps for Target 2 (see below) 4 sets of directions for Target 1 (see below) 4 sets of directions for Target 2 (see below) Chart for recording age, sex, hearing category, target location, use of map or directions, and time for completion

Methodology We will use a sample size of 40 in order for our study to be relatively statistically significant (ideal sample size n = 30+). This will consist of 20 men and 20 women, and each group member will find 5 men and 5 women between the ages of 18-35 to complete the study. The study will take place in two separate wings of Padelford Hall and only individuals who are not familiar with the layout of this building will be allowed to participate. Individuals used in the survey will be asked to begin at a designated starting point and then the surveyor will give them either a map with a red dot at the target location or a set of directions that uses landmarks and then asked to find the target location. The surveyor will use a stopwatch to time how long it takes to for the person to get from the starting point to the target location. Subjects will be told that they are being timed and will be asked to find the target location as quickly as possible without running. All distances will be approximately equal in length and should take the same amount of time to complete. In order to eliminate bias we will alternate target location (1 or 2) and primary route method (map or directions first) for both sexes. Furthermore we will have 10 males tested female surveyors, 10 males tested by male surveyors, 10 females tested by female surveyors, and 10 females tested by male surveyors, as shown below. Surveyor 1 Colette Male 1 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Male 2 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Male 3 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Male 4 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target 1 (map) Male 5 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Female 1 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Female 2 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Female 3 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target 1 (map)

Female 4 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Female 5 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Surveyor 2 Michael Male 1 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target 1 (map) Male 2 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Male 3 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Male 4 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Male 5 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target (map) Female 1 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Female 2 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target 1 (map) Female 3 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Female 4 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Female 5 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Surveyor 3 Reeti Male 1 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Male 2 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Male 3 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target 1 (map) Male 4 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Male 5 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Female 1 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Female 2 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target 1 (map) Female 3 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Female 4 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Female 5 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Surveyor 4 Sean Male 1 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Male 2 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target 1 (map) Male 3 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Male 4 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Male 5 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Female 1 >> 1st target 2 (directions), 2nd target 1 (map) Female 2 >> 1st target 1 (map), 2nd target 2 (directions) Female 3 >> 1st target 2 (map), 2nd target 1 (directions) Female 4 >> 1st target 1 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map) Female 4 >> 2nd target 2 (directions), 2nd target 2 (map)

Directions

Target 1. 1. Begin at the first floor entrance with the room A-101 on your right 2. Continue straight past elevator 3. Continue through sun room 4. Continue past yellow couch 5. At Angela Ginorios office, take a left 6. Go straight until you see an elevator, take it to the third floor 7. At the purple couch, take a right 8. Pass Vladimir Minns office and continue going straight 9. Find room C-322 and take a right 10. Find staircase C and go up one floor 11. Take a left 12. You will come to a fork, steer left 13. Continue past Ebru Bekyels office 14. At Isabella Noviks office, take a left 15. Continue until you find a sunroom with a yellow couch 16. Sit on the couch. The end. Target 2. 1. Begin at the 5th floor of the C wing at the yellow couch opposite the elevator 2. Go straight, and pass Dan Harts office 3. At room 534, take a right 4. Take the stairs down two floors 5. Take a left at the white/yellow spiral mural 6. Continue past room C321 7. Take a left at C300A 8. Take the elevator down one floor 9. Take a left past the cork tack board 10. Continue straight through the sun room 11. Take a right at the exit sign overhead 12. Continue straight when you see a green and black mural 13. Pass Fred. L. Bookstens office 14. Walk through the sunroom with the red couches 15. At the blue couch turn right 16. Go down one floor 17. Take a right 18. Face A-101. The end. Maps (see attached images). For Target 1 subjects will be given maps for floors 1, 3, 4 and 5 which will have colored markings that indicate final destinations at each floor and methods for arriving at the next floor. These floor destinations will correspond to the same floor destinations designated by the above directions. For Target 2 subjects will be given maps for floors 5, 3, 2 and 1 and the same conditions apply.

Expectations We expect to find, as hypothesized, that men will perform better with maps rather than with directions, whereas women will perform better with directions rather than maps. We also expect men to navigate quicker overall, possibly due to some kind of sex-linked trait that gives men a navigational advantage and a more developed innate orientation system. Since this is not a large sample size we do expect to see some outliers and we do not expect the data to completely conform to our predictions. However, we still expect to see at least a slight correlation between sex and navigational strategies/ability. Possible sources of error include confounding variables like people being in the way while subjects are attempting to locate the target, or cell-phones going off in the middle of the study and distracting subjects, or tired student subjects. Some subjects may be competitive and therefore attempt to complete the route faster whereas other subjects may not take the study very seriously and consequently put less effort into finding the target quickly. We will try to make sure that any time an elevator is involved, it is already in place at the correct floor when the subject need to use it, but it is possible that this will not be the case every time. Another very obvious source of error is that our sample will not be random. In order to fulfill the quota we will most likely ask friends to be subjects and this may skew the data in some way. We may also find that the age/experience of the subjects will skew the data. Finally, many subjects will most likely be University of Washington students and there will be a large proportion of hard of hearing subjects which means that it is not a representative sample and the results of the study cannot necessarily be applied to the larger population.