Show tests show women lead taking hints but men found better at reasoning it if women do not reason as well as do men they are better at taking hints with the result that they may more nearly approach the achievements of men this Is one conclusion drawn from a series of 0 reasoning tests teats given students at tho the university university of michigan by the university psychology department reported in the british journal of 0 psychology using students Etu dents in the beginning psychology y course as subjects they were divided into two groups one ot of which received some general hints on what not to do when solving the problems presented the second group received no suggestions the hints were given in connection with one of these problems and it was solved by twice as many individuals as the other problem because lie cause the suggestions were in general advice against depending on habitual patterns of thought and blind persistence in attempting to solve problems and because tile the tasks were best done when the hints are given it Is concluded from the experiments that the type of reasoner reason cr most successful in problem solving lg Is the one alio can suppress or inhibit his habitual line of thought to allow free play of new ideas and thought patterns the ne women students were regularly poorer than the men in problem reasoning even aven though all the problems were not of a mechanical nature which might be more favorable to men those in the group receiving suggestions however raised their solving average markedly apparently benefiting comparatively more from the hints than did the men in the same group the mens scores lo in this group rose decidedly but the women scored higher |