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This chapter discusses the serious concerns about the motives behind the whole project of seeking to find gender differences in cognition. The various scenarios of what can happen in the relatively rare case when research on sex differences is carefully designed and executed are considered. The principles and problems in research on sex differences are also reported. Basic questions on the mathematical, spatial, and verbal abilities in relation to sex differences are presented. It is hoped that the findings will highlight the truly shoddy nature of the research that has been used to justify keeping women out of powerful, influential, and often well-paid positions on the grounds that they lack the intellectual capacity to carry out the duties that these positions require is shown.

This chapter introduces the statistical technique of meta-analysis, which provides a quantitative method for assessing what many different research studies, taken together say about the existence and magnitude of gender differences in abilities. Then, the results of meta-analyses of gender differences in verbal, mathematical, spatial, and scientific abilities are reported. The evidence on gender differences from the much-publicized Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth is also critically examined. The evidence on whether gender differences in cognition have been growing smaller over the course of time is shown. Finally, the hypothesis of greater male variability and the current evidence relating to this hypothesis is described. Within the practical realm, the presented meta-analyses provide no evidence that deficits in abilities are responsible for the underrepresentation of women in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering.

This chapter argues that deaf children provide a strong test for the causal role of language, because many of them have significantly delayed language acquisition but age-appropriate non-verbal intelligence and sociability. It compares the language and theory-of-mind abilities of two groups of deaf children: deaf children of hearing parents, whose language acquisition is delayed, and deaf children of deaf parents, whose language acquisition is not delayed. Across two studies, the chapter finds that deaf children who acquire fluent sign language early are significantly better at reasoning about mental states than language-delayed deaf children. Indeed, the theory-of-mind development of deaf children with deaf parents is comparable to that of their typically developing hearing peers. The chapter notes that both general verbal ability (vocabulary) and specific syntactic features of language (false complement structures) are independently predictive of false-belief reasoning in deaf children. Thus, this chapter demonstrates why language matters for theory of mind and the theory that mastery of the syntax of complementation is what provides the representational mechanism for reasoning about false beliefs.

This chapter presents data from two twin studies conducted at two different times in development—3;6 years and 5;0 years. Both studies showed a strong correlation between general verbal ability and theory of mind. However, the twin study design provides a unique methodological perspective from which to investigate the nature of the relationship between language and theory of mind. The first study, with a sample of three-year-old twins, showed a large influence of genetic factors on theory of mind, with these having little overlap with genetic factors influencing verbal ability. The second study revealed a substantial environmental influence on theory of mind. The association between theory of mind and verbal ability was accounted for by common effects of shared genes, and the common effects of shared environment and socioeconomic status. This chapter concludes that there may be developmental change in the relative impact of genetic and environmental factors on individual differences in theory of mind.

Homo musicus — Musical Man, who creates, performs, and listens to music — is older than Homo sapiens. Man made music of a sort even when he did not know how to measure things or count them properly, and the very concept of numbers was still but a glimmer in his brain. He made music when he could not find the reason for natural phenomena, the rain, hail, and drought around him. Over the many centuries of its development, European culture maintained a ‘musical accent’ which played an active role in the educational process. A number of studies carried out in different countries show the beneficial effects of music on the intellectual growth of children. Music and speech share a common function: social communication. It is likely that the intimate connection of music and the word at the intonation level explains the closeness of musical talent to verbal abilities. Music is also closely associated with mathematics.

In our first substantive chapter, we provide a comprehensive review of studies that have tested associations between indicators of intelligence (broadly construed to include executive functions and other cognitive measures) and physical aggression or violence. This includes studies of verbal ability, performance intelligence, and the PIQ > VIQ discrepancy. We found that there is much evidence indicating that violent offenders have greater intelligence and executive functioning deficits than nonviolent offenders do, and we were surprised to find that it is unclear whether intellectual deficits are associated with nonviolent-only offending at all. We conclude that measures of intelligence and executive functioning are differentially associated with violent behavior.

A major weakness of the contemporary literature on aging and cognition, and likely also in the literature on cognitive development, is the very limited understanding of the relations between age and knowledge, and of the impact of relevant knowledge on functioning in cognitively demanding activities inside and outside of the psychological laboratory. Thinking can be defined as the application of reasoning and other cognitive processes to one's available knowledge to achieve some goal. This chapter examines the relations between adult age and performance on two activities involving thinking. One task is based on the analytical reasoning test formerly used in the Graduate Record Examination to supplement assessments of quantitative ability and verbal ability. The other activity consists of solving difficult crossword puzzles such as those found in newspapers. This chapter also presents a brief summary of the research literature on adult age differences in processing efficiency, or what is known as organic capacities.

Chapter 3 begins with a review of research that profiles pitch perception for memory, discrimination, and reproduction in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), followed by an examination of research that supports songs and singing to assist individuals with ASD acquire language. Echoalia (a prominent feature of speech in many individuals with ASD) is profiled here to help teachers understand how individuals with ASD use language to mediate educational environments. Readers are then provided with practical background about choosing song literature and leading group singing experiences, followed by a series of practical teaching interventions that assist teachers in engaging students with ASD through songs and singing. The chapter closes with information on how teachers may use picture books that portray songs in their interactions with children on the autism spectrum as well as how to choose these books for use in educational settings.

This chapter examines the history of images used for the attainment of mental power and verbal ability by describing metonymical interpretations of the Rig Veda mantras 1.18.6, 8.100.10–11, 8.101.11–16, 10.21.1, 10.71, and 10.125. In the Śrauta literature, these mantras tend to be used in the invitational verses just before an offering during sacrifice, usually an animal offering. In the Grhya literature, they are used before the arrival of a guest, before a meal, or when a Vedic student is returning home and encounters strange sounds. In the Vidhana literature, however, they are recited to secure a more general form of verbal eloquence, mental agility, peace, as well as averting any and all consequences in case one has uttered a falsehood.