GENDER-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN COGNITIVE-ABILITIES - EVIDENCE FROM A MEDICAL-SCHOOL ADMISSIONS TESTING PROGRAM

In an investigation of gender-related differences in cognitive ability factors, analyses were undertaken of a series of administrations over a 9-yr period of a comprehensive test battery used to select medical school applicants in West Germany. Fifteen correlation matrices based on a total of 96,968 males and 90,142 females were factor analysed. Th ree factors were extracted in every case and rotated to an orthogonal simple structure using the Varimax procedure. In every instance, the t hree factors were identified as reasoning, perceptual speed, and memor y with congruence coefficients across administrations ranging from 0.8 9 to 0.99. Highly similar factors were also identified when the data o f males and females were factored separately. In all 15 analyses. male s scored higher on the reasoning factor than did females, and females scored higher than males on the memory factor, in each case about one- half of a standard deviation. Clear changes over the years were not in evidence, except for a tendency for the female advantage in memory to decline.