  The working memory capacity (WMC) of 400 Russian college students was
measured using the Tarnow Unchunkable Test [2] which tests WMC alone without
requiring explicit working memory operations. We found small-sized WMC
differences by gender and the possibility that the male/female ratio increases
for low and high WMC creating a u-shaped curve. The gender proportion in each
academic fields was a strong determinant of the average WMC (r2=0.2 for the
3-item test and r2=0.5 for the 4-item test), associating "academic female"
(law, history) with holistic thinking and "academic male" with reductive
thinking (physics, computer science, math). Within academic fields there were
no WMC gender differences. The male/female ratios for the different fields are
strongly amplified from the WMC male/female ratios, by factors of 12-14.
