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Show Women Quicker to Grasp New Ideas; Men Better at Prolonged Thinking such sex differences in the refractory period. Women, she said, probably have shorter refractory periods. Therefore, There-fore, their nerves transmit a greater number of impulses per unit of time, which, being physiologically a more Intense stimulus, would account for their ability to respond quickly to more details and to rapid changes in environment Men have longer refractory refrac-tory periods snd therefore fewer impulses im-pulses per unit of time, which would account for a slow, massive, deliberative deliber-ative sort of thinking in men. "In genersl, if the task is fractional, that is, divided up into parts, the women wo-men ara better; if, however, the task is continuous, the men are superior," Dr. Book said. BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Jan. J (SS) Women are superior to men in those mental tasks which require attention to details snd a quick adaptation to a rapidly changing situation. But men are superior where quick responses are not so important as a grasp of the problem ss a whole where It is necessary nec-essary to hbld the attention for a prolonged pro-longed period In order to carry a thing through to its logical conclusion. These sex differences were observed ob-served in tha psychological laboratories laborato-ries of Indiana university here, by Dr. Hanna M. Bock, who reported her findings in the current issue of the Journal of Social Psychology. In a test such as that of comparing two parallel columns of figures, where each item is quickly finished and ona must go on to the next, women wo-men were found to excel. Men were better on maze tracing, where the whole pattern must be kept in mind until a solution is found. After a nerve fiber has been excited excit-ed by any stimulus such as those con-' stantly occurring during mental' work, there follows a brief period during which the nerve fiber is inactive inac-tive and cannot respond to further excitement This refractory or inex-citable inex-citable or nonirritabla period is extremely ex-tremely short, measured In mere thousands of a second, and Is very difficult dif-ficult to determine. So far sex differences, dif-ferences, if any, have not been noted. But Dr. Book explsins the sex difference differ-ence iin mental activity she has ob-served ob-served as being possibly a result of j |