The mathematics and reading achievement of 322 adolescents (159 boys) was assessed in seventh and eighth grades, as were their intelligence, working memory, and spatial abilities. Their seventh- and eighth-grade mathematics and English language arts teachers reported on their in-class attentive behavior. The latter emerged as an important predictor of achievement, but more so for mathematics than for reading. Boy were less attentive in classroom settings than girls (d = −.34) and performed better than expected in mathematics given their level of engagement in the classroom. Boys’ better-than-expected mathematics achievement was related to advantages on visuospatial measures (ds = .28–.56), which fully mediated a sex difference in mathematics (ds = .27–.28) but not in reading achievement, with control of in-class attentive behavior. The results suggest that boys’ advantages in visuospatial skills compensate for lower levels of classroom engagement in the learning of mathematics but not in reading competencies.

在七年级和八年级评估了 322 名青少年（159 名男孩）的数学和阅读成绩，以及他们的智力、工作记忆和空间能力。他们七年级和八年级的数学和英语语言艺术老师报告了他们在课堂上的专注行为。后者成为成就的重要预测指标，但对数学而言比对阅读而言更是如此。男孩在课堂环境中的注意力不如女孩 ( d  = −.34)，并且考虑到他们在课堂上的参与程度，他们在数学方面的表现好于预期。男孩的数学成绩好于预期与视觉空间测量的优势有关（d s = .28-.56），这完全调节了数学的性别差异（ds = .27–.28），但在阅读成绩方面没有，在课堂注意力行为的控制下。结果表明，男孩在视觉空间技能方面的优势弥补了课堂参与程度较低的数学学习，而不是阅读能力。