Gender Differences in Skills and Abilities.
Is there an overall difference in cognitive ability between women and men?
Many people in our culture have different and strongly help opinions on this question (for example, "Everyone knows men are smarter" or "Women are smart enough to let men think that they [the men] are more talented").
But a cognitive psychologist needs more than opinion, however loudly voiced.
Asked this question, she must first begin by defining what it means ti have greater overall cognitive ability and must then translate this definition into specific behaviors or patterns of responses on specific tasks (this is called operationalizing the question -making it operational). Finally, she must recruit appropriate samples of men and women and administer the chosen tasks.
One kind of task the psychologist might choose is an intelligence test.
However, a problem with this approach stems from the way intelligence tests are constructed.
pointed out, constructors of intelligence tests work hard to ensure that no overall differences exist between
the scores of men and women. That is, many test constructors exclude from intelligence tests any items that show a reliable
gender difference in responses.