Randi128 at aol.com writes: > on wed 1-29-2003 Mia wrote: > > >....the fact girls tend to do more poorly in math and science as they get > older..... > > Do you have a source for this? I've never heard this before and it > would be interesting to see clinical evidence of decreasing mathematical > abilities in woman as a function of age. I've heard the observation of decreasing *scores* (which is what I think "do more poorly" is referring to). I've heard it enough that I think it's a valid description of some population (possibly in the past, at this point). The claim of any biological decrease in abilities in women as they age is a rather different claim, and much more controversial. I have *not* heard this repeatedly from reasonably believable sources. My personal model, which is tentative and not strongly based in science, is that the capabilities are the same to within our ability to measure (which is rather rough), but that the process of socialization especially during early adolescence causes many women to move away from an earlier interest in math. I wouldn't be shocked to be wrong in many directions from there (but would be a bit surprised to find definitive work on inherent biological capabilities any time soon, regardless of which way it pointed). -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info