Essay on Gender Differences on Verbal and Non Verbal Tasks

Gender differences have been recorded by researches from single neurons in the cell to system level processes (Cahill 2006), and certain scientists proposed that sex hormones influence the development of prefrontal cortex, and this is supposed to be the cause of the differences in working memory performance (Duff & Hampson, 2001). This study further investigated the existence and nature of this gender difference. A sample of 497 Monash University psychology undergraduates (385 females and 112 males; ages 18 – 64) were recruited for this study. Working memory performance was tested with online 'spatial working memory ' test, and 2D:4D finger length ratio was used as an indirect measure of sex hormone levels. The results revealed no sex differences in the working memory performance, but variance in 2D:4D ratio – females had a larger ratio than males. Memory reaction time was negatively correlated with 2D:4D ratio, thus, females had a quicker reaction time.

However in regards to general results between both genders it was shown that no definite statistical mean yielded notable results (Alansari & Baroun, 2004). Stroop (1935) also showed that women college students also showed a difference when compared to the men and tended to have higher word reading results, but in regards to the genders showed no significant differentiation between both at the cognitive level.

Females read and write better than males, although males perform better in math and science.

Bloise, S.M. Johnson, M.K. (2007). Memory for emotional and neutral information: Gender and individual differences in emotional sensitivity. Memory. 15 (2), pp.192-204.

For the purpose of this paper, I will only focus on three hypotheses and three specific elements of the research. First, given that boys are more likely to play video games more often and engage in more psychical activity they should be more adapt to remembering pictures presented dynamically then statically; opposed to girls who were expected to remember pictures that were presented statically. Next, congruent with the gender schema theory, the researcher hypothesized that both males and females are more likely to remember and be able to recall stimuli that is related to one’s sex and have a hard time processing and recalling stimuli counter stereotypical to one’s sex. Lastly, gender-stereotypical stimuli are predicted to be recalled better under intentional conditions rather than incidental. For this research, nearly 160 children and adolescents were presented with 36 gender stereotypical toy photographs that is, they were highly classified as being masculine, feminine, or neutral. In addition, each was categorized based on its function. The participants were randomly assigned to two groups; the incidental memory condition and the intentional memory condition. Half of the participants were first presented with 36 static pictures (SOM) and the other half presented with 36 dynamic pictures (DOM). The participants in the SOM were presented with photographs appearing in the center of the screen for nearly 5 seconds and were

The remaining 68% are ranked in terms of an average typical aging participant. The most important finding suggests that the more educated and physically active you are, and if you carry the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene, the more likely you are to retain information from your everyday experiences (Josefsson et al., 2012). Yet those whose episodic memory declines with age may be a result of no physical activity, are overall less educated and carry the allele apolipoprotein E ɛ4. Furthermore, it is important to note that women are the dominant gender in episodic memory stability (Josefsson et al., 2012). Based on my interpretation, it is essential to conduct further research to note whether genetics overweighs our level of education and to what extent genetics plays a role in episodic memory stability and or decline. Also, the data provided a rather broad conclusion but the evidence is sufficient to state an overall answer to the research

Well, maybe it’s just because they are, or because of the enhanced memory and social cognition skills. This is saying we remember stuff better than the male part of our species. The males have higher local functional connectivity, while females have a more broad functional connectivity. Females have more between-hemispheric connectivity and cross-module participation predominated in females. That means that females are better at thinking things out or as people call it “seeing the different colors of the world, in shades of gray.” So, in technicalities, females have superior intellect. (Woolley et al., n.d., p.

2581). The questions of if and how gender plays a role in a person's STM capabilities and working memory is one that has been visited and revisited over time, but has generally yielded fairly consistent results: one sex does not dominate the other in terms of which has a more functional STM, rather, men and women maintain their own respective skills regarding different areas of STM ("Sex Differences in Memory"; Loftus et al. 82).

Men and women also have many different psychological and behavioral traits. Women perform better with verbal fluency,

“Gender differences in sustained attentional control are incompletely characterized. Some studies show no effect of gender on sustained attention, while others suggest that men may have greater vigilance, and women may have enhanced inhibitory control. Consistent with a female advantage in inhibitory control, on a continuous performance task, women have been shown to be less impulsive, slower and more variable than men” (Riley et al.02).

Psychologists determine significant gender differences on personal events women tend to remember more. Specific results indicated that women excelled in verbal memory tasks, such as remembering words, objects, pictures or everyday events, and men outperform women in visuospatial processing (Association for Psychological Science 2008).

The aim of the experiment was to use the serial position effect to test some predictions of the stage theory of memory. It was hypothesised that with an increase in delay, there will be a decrease in recall of words from the end of the lists. The second hypothesis of the experiment was that with an increase in delay, there will be little difference in the number of words recalled from the start of the lists. Thirty psychology students were presented with 8 trials, each consisting of 15 words followed either by a short delay of 1 second or a long delay of 15 seconds. Participants had to recall the words they had just viewed in any order to the experimenter. The mean number of words recalled (measured for each position in the list, for both delays) were calculated across the participants in the class. The results supported the hypotheses that with an increase in delay there will be a decrease in recall of words at the end of the lists and that there will be little difference in the number of words recalled from the start of the list with an increase in delay.

When learning occurs, it can occur through many different processes. Inevitably, some of what is learnt is later forgotten, which leads to the question of what can be done to improve memory and if memory is linked to a particular learning process. This study of memory is related to cognitive psychology, which studies human mental processes. The aim of this experiment is to see whether different levels of processing information can alter the accuracy and amount of information that can be recalled.

Have you ever had an eventful story of your childhood that you seem to always retell every time you meet someone new? That is because you are able to access the memory of the event in your mind that was stored in your long term memory. There are three different types of memory each one having a different purpose. First being the long term memory which stores memory’s for long periods of time. Next is short term memory also known as working memory which only last for an estimated 15-30 seconds. Finally is sensory memory which is the ability to remember sensory information. Throughout time it has been constantly said that women have better memory than men. In order to gain a better understanding between the difference of gender and memory multiple tests have been conducted. With regard to memory this study is focused primarily but not limited to short term memory. Short term memory meaning the capacity to store a minimal amount of information for a short period of time. Conductive to this study the research covers a large array of different tests in order to determine which gender has the superior memory. These multiple test includes but isn’t limited to test discerning faces of people of different and same races, telling apart different shapes, words, and figures, as well as determine object location through memory. Each group was tested based off of their memory and their ability to recall what they were shown. Thus given the results of these multiple studies we are able to

Knowing the differences in the brain begins to give some understanding on how and why females and males learn differently. There are many basic differences in learning. Like stated previously females are better at verbal skills which makes them better at reading and writing and causes them to use words as they learn, and males are better