SynthesisPsychonomic bulletin & review2019
A meta-analysis of sex differences in human navigation skills.
Synthesis in Psychonomic bulletin & review, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neural networks underlying magnitude perception: a specific meta-analysis of fMRI studies.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and New Analyses of the Gender-Equality Paradox.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of estrogen on spatial navigation and memory.Psychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Shape configuration of mental targets representation as a holistic measure in a 3D real world pointing test for spatial orientation.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Article
- Gender stereotypes and the construction of self-beliefs in spatial cognition.Psychological research · 2026Article
- Egocentric Dominance in Spatial Representations: The Role of Environmental Familiarity in Building Cognitive Maps.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Virtual Morris Water Task: Procedures and Protocols for the Assessment of Spatial Navigation and Memory.Current protocols · 2026Article
- SPACE: A novel digital tool for assessing hippocampal structural integrity in older adults.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Distinct aging-related profiles of allocentric knowledge recall following navigation in an immersive, naturalistic, city-like environment.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Disciplinary trends in spatial concept associations: a multifaceted analysis of student responses.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- "Freely explore this environment": individual differences in exploration behavior and survey knowledge.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- Heading direction perception in the horizontal plane is strongly driven by rotational stimuli in healthy and impaired in vestibular hypofunction.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- This is not the way: global directional cues do not improve spatial learning in an immersive virtual environment.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- Divide (evenly) and conquer (quickly): Spatial exploration behaviors predict navigational learning and differ by sex.Cognition · 2025Article
- Charting the Unknown : Sex Differences in Spatial Exploration Across the Lifespan.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Dual Assessment of Developmental Topographical Disorientation: Comparing Self-Reported Measures with Actual Navigational Performance.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Learning the layout of different environments: common or dissociated abilities?Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- Education Is Positively and Causally Linked With Spatial Navigation Ability Across the Lifespan.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025Article
- Age- and sex-related differences in landmark recall following a virtual spatial navigation task.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
There are inconsistent reports regarding behavioral sex differences in the human navigation literature. This meta-analysis quantifies the overall magnitude of sex differences in large-scale navigation skills in a variety of paradigms and populations, and examines potential moderators, using 694 effect sizes from 266 studies and a multilevel analytic approach. Overall, male participants outperform female participants, with a small to medium effect size (d = 0.34 to 0.38). The type of task, the type of dependent variable and the testing environment significantly contribute to variability in effect sizes, although there are only a few situations in which differences are either nonexistent or very large. Pointing and recall tasks (and the deviation scores associated with them) show larger sex differences than distance estimation tasks or learning to criterion. Studies with children younger than 13 years showed much smaller effect sizes (d = .15) than older age groups. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding sex differences in human spatial navigation and identify avenues for future navigation research.
Indexed as
Identifiers
31270765What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.