1. Experience and retrieval mode as potential modulating factors in gender differences in distance knowledge of a daily environment. Maartje de Goede | Albert Postma Conference on Research and Training in Spatial Intelligence Evanston, 14 June 2008

2. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN CONFIGURATIONAL KNOWLEDGE -In most cases males outperform females (+/- 50 %) -But: in considerable number of studies males and females perform the same (+/- 41 %) (Colluccia & Louse, 2004)

3. POSSIBLE MODULATING FACTORS? Amount of familiarity, experience (Colluccia & Louse, 2004; Fields & Shelton, 2006) Self-Confidence (Lawton, 1996; Schmitz, 1997; Moe & Pazzaglia, 2006) Difficulty (Colluccia & Louse, 2004)

4. AIM STUDY 1.Investigating the modulating effect of experience on gender differences in distance knowledge 2.Investigating the effect of task type: Implicit distance task Explicit distance task

5. PARTICIPANTS 81 participants (42 females) −Half of the participants had lived between 6 – 12 months in Utrecht −Half of the participants had lived more than 36 months in Utrecht METHODS

6. METHODS & MATERIALS City of Utrecht, 12 locations Location recognition task Priming task (McNamara, 1986; Noordzij et al., 2005) Distance task

7. 12 LOCATIONS IN UTRECHT INTRODUCTION

8. METHODS & MATERIALS City of Utrecht, 12 locations Location recognition task Priming task (McNamara, 1986; Noordzij et al., 2005) Distance task

9. DISTANCE COMPARISON TASK (Evans & Pezdek, 1980) INTRODUCTION Dom - bibliotheekHema - Broers 4 sec1 sec

10. SELF-RATING KNOWLEDGE LOCATION POSITIONS ** effect experience: F (1, 77) = 58.2, p <.001

11. PRIMING TASK * * * Distance : F (1, 77) = 35.04, p <.001 Experience: F (1, 77) = 7.4, p <.01

12. REACTION TIMES AND DISTANCE RATIOS r = 0.65, p <.001

13. DISTANCE TASK Interaction effect: Pair type x Experience x Sex: F (1, 73) = 4.87, p <.05 **

14. CONCLUSION & DISCUSSION Subjective rating of location knowledge shows effect of experience. Effect of gender and experience in ‘difficult’ distance task > related to strategy? No effect gender/experience in implicit distance task.

15. STRATEGY Χ ² (1, N = 50) = 8.0, p <.01 Χ ² (1, N = 52) = 8.3, p <.01

16. CONCLUSION & DISCUSSION Subjective rating of location knowledge shows effect of experience. Effect of gender and experience in ‘difficult’ distance task > related to strategy? No effect gender/experience in implicit distance task.

17. CORRELATION PRIMING TASK – DISTANCE TASK

18. CONCLUSION & DISCUSSION Subjective rating of location knowledge shows effect of experience. Effect of gender and experience in ‘difficult’ distance task > related to strategy? No effect gender/experience in implicit distance task.

19. THANK YOU!