Gender Differences in Episodic Memory
Memory & Cognition 1997,25 (6),801-811
Gender differences in episodic memory
AGNETAHERLITZ Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm. Gerontology Research Center, Stockholm, Sweden and University ofStockholm; Stocknolm, Sweden LARS-GORAN NILSSON University ofStockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
and
LARS BACKMAN
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm. Gerontology Research Center, Stockholm; Sweden and Gbteborg University, Gbteborg, Sweden
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 Umea, 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 outperformed 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. In 1974, Maccoby and Jacklin published their highly cited work on gender differences in various human abilities and functions. They concluded that girls have greater verbal ability than boys do; that boys excel in visuospatial and mathematical ability; and that males are more aggressive than females. However, Maccoby and Jacklin rejected the hypothesis of gender differences in learning and memory. Since then, virtually no systematic
Gender differences in episodic memory
AGNETAHERLITZ Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm. Gerontology Research Center, Stockholm, Sweden and University ofStockholm; Stocknolm, Sweden LARS-GORAN NILSSON University ofStockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
and
LARS BACKMAN
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm. Gerontology Research Center, Stockholm; Sweden and Gbteborg University, Gbteborg, Sweden
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 Umea, 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 outperformed 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. In 1974, Maccoby and Jacklin published their highly cited work on gender differences in various human abilities and functions. They concluded that girls have greater verbal ability than boys do; that boys excel in visuospatial and mathematical ability; and that males are more aggressive than females. However, Maccoby and Jacklin rejected the hypothesis of gender differences in learning and memory. Since then, virtually no systematic