Dr. Qazi Rahman, a psychology professor at Queen Mary, University of London, conducted a study showing that women and gay men perform poorly in tasks involving navigation and spatial awareness when compared to heterosexual men.

The Telegraph, which reported the study, went on to suggest that women and gay men have difficulting navigating their way through unfamiliar places because they rely on landmarks they recognize to get around...

Both tend to rely on local landmarks to get around, and are also slower to take in spatial information.

The computer-based tests were carried out on 140 volunteers, and demonstrated that gay men, straight women and lesbians navigated in a similar way, sharing the same weaknesses.

This probably explains why women urge their male companions to stop the car and ask for directions.

The report goes on to explain...

Although women are more successful in tests requiring them to remember the position of objects, men consistently do better in tasks requiring navigation and uncovering hidden objects.

Dr Rahman said: "Men are good at using distal, or geometrical cues, to decide if they're going north or south, for instance. They have a better basic sense of direction, but they can use local land marks as well.

Rahman also explained that gay men possess "mosaic performance", switching back and forth continuously, where they drive like men, and then switch to driving like women.

So there you have it gals. It's scientific.

Read the full article at The Telegraph...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/..../2008/01/03/ngay103.xml

You can also get a more scientific synopsis at the University's news page...
http://www.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/news/index.shtml

Labels: Women Riders