Real-life outcomes for men and women suggest the existence of cognitive sex differences, but the evidence for a sex difference in general intelligence is equivocal. Here, we examine the role of spatial ability for IQ test performance, in light of the developmental hypothesis that male performance increases more than female across adolescence. Using longitudinal data from Block and Block data set on the Wechsler scales and the rod-and-frame test (RFT) for ages 4 (N = 108), 11 (N = 101), and 18 years (N = 100), we find that males' performance becomes greater than females' with age, both on IQ and the RFT. At 18 years of age, males' mean IQ and RFT score was 116.4 and 4.05 (lower scores representing less error), as compared to111.5 and 7.85 for females. Importantly, we found that the RFT mediates the sex difference in IQ, and that the factor loadings of the RFT on the g factor increases with age, from −0.06 at age 4 to −0.52 at 11 and −0.67 at age 18. In conclusion, g becomes more integrative of spatial ability across time and this finding may explain sex differences in g after puberty and potentially has interesting implications for the understanding of the development of intelligence. One important direction for future research is to incorporate biologically based pubertal neural changes into our understanding of developmental sex differences in intelligence.

男性和女性的现实生活结果表明存在认知性别差异，但一般智力性别差异的证据是模棱两可的。在这里，我们研究了空间能力对 IQ 测试表现的作用，根据发育假设，即在青春期男性表现比女性提高更多。使用来自韦氏量表上的 Block 和 Block 数据集的纵向数据以及 4 岁（N  = 108）、11 岁（N  = 101）和 18 岁（N = 100)，我们发现男性的表现随着年龄的增长而变得高于女性，无论是在智商上还是在 RFT 上。在 18 岁时，男性的平均 IQ 和 RFT 得分分别为 116.4 和 4.05（得分越低代表错误越少），而女性的平均 IQ 和 RFT 得分为 111.5 和 7.85。重要的是，我们发现 RFT 调节 IQ 的性别差异，并且 RFT 对g因子的因子负载随着年龄的增长而增加，从 4 岁时的 -0.06 到 11 岁时的 -0.52 和 18 岁时的 -0.67。 , g随着时间的推移变得更加整合空间能力，这一发现可以解释g的性别差异青春期后，可能对理解智力发展产生有趣的影响。未来研究的一个重要方向是将基于生物学的青春期神经变化纳入我们对智力发育性别差异的理解中。