Gender differences in episodic memory

The relationship between gender and memory has been largely neglected by research, despite occasional studies reporting gender differences in episodic memory performance. The present study examined potential gender differences in episodic memory, semantic memory, primary memory, and priming. Five hu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Memory & cognition 1997-11, Vol.25 (6), p.801-811
Main Authors: HERLITZ, A, NILSSON, L.-G, BÄCKMAN, L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender differences
Human
Humans
Learning. Memory
Male
Memory
Mental Recall
Middle Aged
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Regression Analysis
Semantics
Sex Characteristics
Sexes
Verbal Learning
Women
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Summary:The relationship between gender and memory has been largely neglected by research, despite occasional studies reporting gender differences in episodic memory performance. The present study examined potential gender differences in episodic memory, semantic memory, primary memory, and priming. Five hundred thirty women and 470 men, randomly sampled from the city of Umeå, Sweden, 35-80 years of age, participated in the study. There were no differences between men and women with regard to age or education, or on a measure of global intellectual functioning. As has been demonstrated previously, men out performed women on a visuospatial task and women outperformed men on tests of verbal fluency. In addition, the results demonstrated that women consistently performed at a higher level than did men on the episodic memory tasks, although there were no differences between men and women on the tasks assessing semantic memory, primary memory, or priming. The women's higher level of performance on the episodic memory tasks could not be fully explained by their higher verbal ability.
ISSN:0090-502X
1532-5946
DOI:10.3758/BF03211324