Remember when Barbie whined that “math is hard.” Maybe you got annoyed at hearing a popular female doll say that to little girls. Or maybe you also had a nagging suspicion that, in fact, boys are better at math. Well, the latest research is in, and the answer is a resounding no: boys are not more math savvy. The finding appears in the July 25 issue of the journal Science. 

    Janet Hyde at the University of Wisconsin-Madison led the study. The group dug through piles of information from seven million students tested through the No Child Left Behind program across ten states. Researchers had detailed personal info on the test takers. Researchers checked out math tests in different grades. They took the average. No difference. Some critics have said that the difference only shows up among the highest levels of math skills. So the team checked out the most gifted children. Again, no difference. From any angle, girls measured up to boys. Still, there’s a lack of women in the highest levels of professional math, engineering and physics. Some have said that’s because of an innate difference in math ability. But the new research shows that that explanation just doesn’t add up.

    你一定还记得芭比娃娃曾抱怨“数学很难”。或许你很讨厌听到一个大众喜爱的玩具女娃娃对小女孩们这样说。你也可能愤愤不平地怀疑男孩子真就是比女孩子数学好。最新的研究出来了，答案完全是否定的：男孩子在数学上未必比女孩子聪明。这项研究发表在7月25日的《科学》杂志上。

    威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的珍妮特•海德领导了这项研究。这个研究小组分析了来自十个州多达7百万学生的信息，这些学生的考试是通过《不让一个儿童落后》计划进行的。研究人员掌握参加考试学生的详细个人信息。他们分析检验了不同年级的数学考试成绩。结果表明男孩女孩都取得平均成绩，并没有男女差别。有些评论家说男女成绩的差别只在最高级别的数学技巧上显现出来。因此这个研究小组对那些最有天分的儿童们进行了分析检验。结果仍然是没有男女之别。从任何角度讲，女孩子和男孩子的数学能力相同。但是，在对数学要求最高的工程和物理职业领域里，女性仍然不多。有些人认为这是由于男女在数学能力方面天生有别。但是这项最新的研究表明这样的解释是站不住脚的。