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It Was Hypothesised That A Low Digit Ratio Would Lead To Lower Scores On The ...

It was hypothesised that a low digit ratio would lead to lower scores on the verbal fluency tasks and that lower scores would be associated with individuals in the Mathematics and Science professions. It was also hypothesised that individuals in Arts or English based occupations or courses of study would achieve higher scores in the verbal and vocabulary tasks than Mathematics and Science based occupations or courses. Essentially, the study seeks to establish whether Arts and English based professionals and students perform better on vocabulary and verbal fluency tasks than Maths and Science based individuals.
Data for the study was provided from 57 subjects on digit ratio. The subjects were recruited from Science, Maths, English and Language professions. The ages of the participants ranged from 20 to 38 years and of the 57 participants, 32 were female and 25 were male. The profession, sex, age, smoking preference and units of alcohol consumed per week by each subject were recorded. Right and left hand index and ring finger lengths were measured and recorded along with right and left hand ratios and combined ratios.
The participants were asked to take part in a number of cognitive tests which would provide an insight into their verbal, spatial and mathematical abilities. In particular, t-tests were carried out on the digit ratio groups and the following tests:
Letter-Number Sequencing Test
In this test the examiner reads a series of numerical values aloud to the subject. Each new series which is read aloud is slightly more complex than its predecessor. The subject is required to repeat the numbers back to the examiner in reverse order. Eight series of two number sequences were presented.
Mental Arithmetic Test
In this test the participant is asked to verbally solve a series of fifteen problems. They were given a limited amount of time in which to solve these problems.
Milhill Vocabulary Tests
This test was used to ascertain the strength of the participants' verbal ability and crystallised intelligence. In this test the participant is asked to recall acquired information using a non-verbal vocabulary scale.

Analysis
Digit Ratio: Comparison of Low Digit Group with High Digit Group
Out of the total number of individuals studied (57), 35 had low right hand digit ratios (right hand digit ratios below 1.00) and 22 had high right hand digit ratios (right hand digit ratios of 1.00 or above). All statistics are based upon right hand digit ratios, as the right hand digit ratio is considered to provide a more accurate reading of prenatal testosterone. Of those in the low digit ratio category, 19 or 54.3% were male, and 16 or 45.7% were female. In the high digit ratio category, only 5 of the 22 subjects were male and 17 were female, resulting in percentages of 22.7% and 77.3% respectively. The highest male digit ratio was 1.02 and the highest female digit ratio was 1.07.

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