Adolescent boys and girls begin to develop different cognitive strengths as they progress through high school, with boys increasingly favored in mechanical reasoning and girls leaning toward math and verbal skills. These varied cognitive profiles seem to shift as teenagers age, guided by underlying changes in mental processing speed. The findings were recently published in Intelligence & Cognitive Abilities. The concept of cognitive tilt describes a specific pattern of mental strengths and weaknesses. It means an individual’s cognitive profile leans heavily toward one area of strength when paired against a relative weakness. Someone with an academic tilt might excel at reading and basic math but struggle with fixing a broken appliance. Conversely, someone with a mechanical tilt might instinctively understand how a car engine works but face challenges passing a traditional chemistry exam. Thomas Coyle, a researcher at the University of Texas at San Antonio, conducted the study to expand upon earlier investigations of cognitive ability. Coyle wanted to track how mechanical and spatial forms of tilt evolve over the teenage years. He also aimed …