An investigation of sex differences on incidental memory for verbal and pictorial material

Previous research has sometimes claimed a female advantage on tasks of incidental memory. However, it is uncertain whether the sex difference was due to the incidental, or to the heavily verbal, nature of the tasks used, since women are known to have better verbal memory than men. The current study asked whether a female superiority would be found under less verbally-loaded conditions. No sex difference was found on two different pictorial tasks, both of which measured incidental memory for the content of complex scenes. In contrast, a female advantage was observed across both incidental and intentional conditions when easily labeled stimuli were used. This advantage was eliminated on the incidental condition when the effects of intentional verbal memory were controlled for. These findings strongly suggest that previous reports of a female advantage on incidental memory may have been due to the choice of verbalizable stimuli.     

Population differences in constructive memory

An experiment was conducted to evaluate constructive memory in fourth-grade low-SES black and middle-SES white children. The children were read nine short passages; each passage was composed of two premise statements and a filler sentence. The children were tested by a recognition procedure. Thirty-six test sentences were presented randomly. Four sentences were associated with each passage (true premise, false premise, true inference, and false inference). Subjects were asked to make yes/no recognition decisions based on whether the test sentence was identical to a sentence presented at study. Middle-SES white children made few errors, except to true inference test sentences. This pattern of performance is consistent with the constructive view of memory. Low-SES black children also had a high error rate to true inference items. However, this outcome may not reflect constructive memory because they also had a high error rate to some of the other types of test sentences.     

Identifying sex differences in reading disability

The issue of sex differences in reading disability has been of recent interest in relation to sex ratios in families with reading disabled children and to possible sex biases in referred populations. Data from a study of 570 twins are used to develop alternative definitions of reading disability that vary in the manner to which sex effects are taken into account. These definitions include discrepancies between reading quotients and IQ, the use of the regression of reading onto IQ and chronological age/reading age differences. In each case the reading and spelling disability was defined either separately for the sexes or based upon the data for the sexes combined and with and without an IQ>90 exclusion criterion. The consequences of using the alternative definitions for prevalence, sex ratio and heritability are examined. The results demonstrate that the characteristics of reading disabled children vary with the way disability is defined. The excess of males seems to be a robust finding. Definitions that take into account differences in mean score for males and females reduce but do not eradicate the sex ratio. From the genetic analysis, there is no support for the suggestion that the genetic effect on reading is greater for females than males. It is concluded that the use of regression based procedures for identifying reading disability is desirable but that at present there is insufficient evidence to justify the adoption of separate regression procedures for the two sexes.     

Reconciling sex differences in information-processing and career outcomes

Conclusion Information-processing theory has the potential to yield new understanding of the career development process. However, theorists and researchers must be cognizant of the many ways in which current approaches are limited in their ability to relate process explanations to career outcomes which differ for females and males. These approaches could be made more sensitive to female/male differences by: (a) examining the nature of thedecision which is being investigated; (b) expanding the notion ofinformation to include that which is relevant to the decision regarding the importance of work in one's life and also that which relates to the interpersonal context of occupations; (c) relating the vocationalschema to otherschema, i.e., the genderschema; and (d) noting whether process variables are general, sex-related, or sex-specific.Patricia L. Wolleat is Professor and Chair, Department of Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education, 321 Education, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.     

Are sex differences in child motor activity level a function of sex differences in maturational status?

By virtue of being farther along a developmental path for motor activity level, girls may appear to be the less active sex when compared to less physically mature but same-aged boys. If so, observed sex differences in activity level may be an epiphenomenon of sex differences in maturity related declines in AL. To test this hypothesis and the associated premise that females would be more mature and less active than males, the customary activity levels and relative physical maturities of 83 5-8-year-olds were assessed. Relative maturity (percentage of estimated adult height attained) was negatively related to activity level, and girls were both less motorically active and more mature than boys. Though reduced in magnitude, the sex effect remained significant after maturity was added as a predictor of AL. Thus, sex differences are not due only to maturity differences but may be partially mediated by them.     

Visual recognition memory in squirrel monkeys

Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) were trained on visual recognition memory tasks in a Wisconsin General Testing Apparatus with a trial-unique procedure that used 250 objects as stimuli. In Experiment 1, acquisition of a trial-unique delayed non-match-to-sample task (DNMS) was compared with acquisition of a trial-unique delayed match-to-sample (DMS) task. The DNMS task was learned in significantly fewer trials and with significantly fewer errors. Two animals in the DNMS group demonstrated highly accurate retention of the DNMS strategy despite an 11-month hiatus in experimental testing. In Experiment 2, the same procedures were used to study the learning of lists of 3, 5, 10, or 20 serially presented items. Although the animals were able to accurately remember lists of up to 20 items, there was no evidence of serial position effects.     

Individual differences in young children's recall and clustering of pictures

Children's incidental recall of pictures was examined in two related experiments. Extrapolating from adult research, it was predicted that categorizing pictures with respect to their semantic properties would yield greater recall than categorizing them according to their physical properties. In Experiment 1, second-grade children were exposed to 16 line drawings cross-classified to represent four taxonomic categories and four shape categories, with four instances per category. Control subjects simply looked at pictures. Semantic subjects identified each picture's semantic category, and Physical subjects identified each physical category. In Experiment 2, first graders freely sorted the pictures and were classified as Semantic or Physical sorters based on their predominant bases for sorting. Following exposure (Experiment 1) or sorting (Experiment 2), all subjects were asked to recall the picture names. Results of both experiments show that semantic classification yields greater recall than physical classification. Experiment 2 also shows that semantic sorting yields greater semantic clustering in recall and that sorting by physical category yields greater physical clustering. It was suggested that children's preferences for a mode of processing (Experiment 2) may constitute an individual difference dimension with fairly clear-cut instructional implications.     

Adult word recognition and visual sequential memory

Two experiments were conducted investigating the role of visual sequential memory skill in the word recognition efficiency of undergraduate university students. Word recognition was assessed in a lexical decision task using regularly and strangely spelt words, and nonwords that were either standard orthographically legal strings or items made from words with internal transposed letters. Symbol memory was evaluated in a recognition procedure in which sequences of three to five unfamiliar complex symbols were presented, each followed by a subsequent array containing the symbols either in the same order or with an order transposition. In Experiment 1, there was no independent contribution of symbol memory to either word or nonword processing independently of the ability to discriminate the symbols from one another. In Experiment 2, although symbol memory made a significant contribution to word recognition independently of symbol discrimination and letter identification for two conditions??long strangely spelt words and short transposed-letter items, the effects were extremely small. It was concluded that non-verbal visual sequential memory skill does not play a central role in underpinning efficiency of word recognition in experienced adult readers.     

Variable memory strategy use in children's adaptive intratask learning behavior: developmental changes and working memory influences in free recall

Variability in strategy use within single trials in free recall was analyzed longitudinally from second to fourth grades (ages 8-10 years). To control for practice effects another sample of fourth graders was included (age 10 years). Video analyses revealed that children employed different strategies when preparing for free recall. A gradual shift from labeling to cumulative rehearsal was present both with increasing age and across different list positions. Whereas cumulative rehearsal was frequent at early list positions, labeling was dominant at later list portions. Working memory capacity predicted the extent of cumulative rehearsal usage, which became more efficient with increasing age. Results are discussed in the context of the adaptive strategy choice model.     

Electrophysiological correlates of infant recognition memory

Event-Related Potentials were recorded from 6-month-old infants in order to examine the electrophysiological correlates of recognition memory. In 1 study, infants were shown 1 face briefly, followed by the same face presented with high probability, and a novel face presented with low probability. 2 components were observed that distinguished between the novel and familiar events. Differences between these components in latency, polarity, and scalp topography led to the suggestion that 2 processes were involved in recognizing the stimuli. In a second study infants were again presented with 1 face briefly, followed by the same face and a novel face presented with equal probability. 1 component at central scalp distinguished between the novel and familiar events. In a third study, infants were simply presented with 2 previously unseen faces equally often. Infants responded as if the faces were identical, suggesting that previous experience with 1 stimulus directs infants' attention to the novel stimulus during the test portion of the task. The extent to which the observed responses reflect the updating of working memory is discussed, as is the extent to which infants' electrophysiological response to stimulus novelty and uncertainty resembles the adult's.