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Jennifer Fleming, a junior behavioral neuroscience major from Philadelphia, Pa., and a graduate of Abraham Lincoln High School, is enjoying the challenges of an independent study. “You have to be ready to explain your opinion and talk about what you think the literature is about. When you’re sitting in a class, you’re not necessarily going to be the one called on. And I’m responsible for finding what I want to research, instead of it just being handed to me.”
In a distinctive independent study project with Ann V. McGillicuddy-DeLisi, professor and head of psychology, Jennifer Fleming is examining the disparity between boys’ and girls’ spatial perception and mathematical ability.
Fleming is studying possible evolutionary reasons behind the gender differences in the two areas, as well as possible prenatal hormonal causes of disparities in boys’ and girls’ understanding of math.
“You don’t notice some of these differences early in life,” says McGillicuddy-DeLisi, a developmental psychologist whose research specialties include the development of spatial knowledge in children and the influence of family environment factors on the development of children and adults. “The ability to imagine things rotating around an axis favors males, for example, but you don’t start to see the gender difference until the middle school years. This persists into adulthood.”
The gender differences in math are particularly puzzling because early performance favors females, but later results show that males surpass them, notes Fleming.
The gender differences have a big impact in career-development, McGillicuddy-DeLisi says.
“If you’re going to enter a field that involves any spatial imagination, from an air-traffic controller to a physicist, you have to be able to imagine spatial movements,” she adds. “Engineering and most sciences relate to mathematical and spatial abilities. What you find is that more females opt out of courses and experiences that would lead them to develop in those areas. It becomes a crucial thing when they lose confidence and don’t continue to seek out challenging experiences, because the gap increases between males and females. The affects all sorts of things, from occupational choices to the ability to solve everyday problems, such as which way you turn a screw.”
Fleming is enjoying the challenges of an independent study.
“You have to be ready to explain your opinion and talk about what you think the literature is about,” she says. “When you’re sitting in a class, you’re not necessarily going to be the one called on. And I’m responsible for finding what I want to research, instead of it just being handed to me.”
“Professor McGillicuddy-DeLisi is very enthusiastic and knows a lot about the subject,” she continues. “She has written books on it and is in the process of writing another. She’s always answering questions and is very flexible.”
Another Side of Jennifer
She is a volunteer in the America Reads program, one of more than 30 programs of sustained voluntary service to the community that Lafayette students conduct each year under the auspices of the College’s Landis Community Outreach Center. She is also on the executive board of her sorority, Alpha Phi.