Female minds outperform those of males ... among garden birds at least.

Girls gain higher marks than boys in the Leaving Certificate exams. Women are better at ‘multi-tasking’, and their intuitive faculties, it’s claimed, are superior to men’s. When it comes to ‘spatial ability’, however, males are judged the better performers.

Are these differences inherited or are cultural factors responsible for them? Do males and females of other species have differing cognitive skills?

Measuring such traits in the wild is exceedingly difficult but researchers in Sweden have done so for one of our common garden birds. They claim that female great tits have better memories than their male counterparts.