A substantial, and ongoing, body of research literature has identified gender differences with respect to
students' navigation and mapping skills (e.g., Lawton & Kallai, 2002; Sandstrom, Kaufman, & Huettel,
1998; Thorndyke, 1982). Typically, participants in these studies are undergraduate students, and the
performance differences in favour of males are evident on most navigational tasks (Wolbers & Hegarty,
2010). Kitchin (1996) argued that these differences were likely to be a result of the fact that females have
less access to situations that develop spatial skills or that navigational tasks favour male problem-solving
strategies. Interestingly, Boardman (1990) highlighted the fact that gender difference in mapping ability
tended to increase over time and that by adolescence boys demonstrated more highly developed map
skills than girls.