Working Memory Gender Differences

Gender differences in working memory performance as a function of sex hormone levels.
Author

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to further investigate the gender differences in the working memory performance due to sex hormone levels, as well as to assess whether the difference exists and to what extent. They were a 157 participants who were approached at Monash University in this research that engaged in an online n-back task, which measured their working memory and measured their second and fourth digit in order to get a 2D:4D ratio that was used as an indirect measure of sex hormone levels in utero. The study found that women had a greater difference in working memory hence there is a difference in working memory
Working memory also reflects the capability to maintain representations in the presence of interference. Several studies indicate that (WM) is strongly related to intelligence (Kane, Hambrick, & Conway, 2005) and executive functions. Working memory is considered to play a crucial role in a wide variety of complex cognitive activities, including mental calculations, reasoning and language comprehension. Individual differences have been implicated in social psychology phenomena such as stereotype threat, emotion regulation and intrusive thought suppression (Engle, 2010).Hence the appropriate measurement for individual difference in working memory is critical. Several previous studies support sex related differences for working memory measures Silverman & Earls (1992), presented participants with an array of objects and asked them to determine which objects had changed locations in a susequent array. Interestingly the authors found that females were more accurate at determine which objects had been moved. Duff & Hampson, (2001) , Lejbak, Vrbancic, & Crossley,( 2010) also found a female advantage for an object-location task that had a significant working memory compent. However a male advantage for a spatial span
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