IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ijpsjl/v5y2013i1p11.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender Differences in Visuospatial Working Memory —Does Emotion Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Andrés González-Garrido
  • Fabiola Gómez-Velázquez
  • Henrique Sequeira
  • Julieta Ramos-Loyo
  • Adriana López-Franco

Abstract

Sex-based differences in visuospatial working memory (VSWM) processing have been documented previously.However, there is a significant lack of empirical data on the gender-related effects on both cognitive load, andthe emotional content of spatially-remembered objects in VSWM. In order to explore this issue, 50 young adults(25 males) voluntarily participated in performing a VSWM task with two different levels of cognitive load.Trials included 4 or 6 facial (happy, fearful and neutral faces), or non-facial, stimuli, presented sequentially atrandomized spatial locations, and subjects were asked to reproduce the sequences in inverse order. Behavioralresults showed that both males and females performed more accurately and faster when the sequences to bereproduced were shorter. In general, males performed significantly better than females, but particularly whenreproducing longer sequences. Males and females were sensitive to the emotional content of the stimuli, as bothgenders achieved significantly more correct responses during trials with happy faces. Results suggest thatgender-based differences on VSWM processing go beyond discriminating processes, and may involvedissimilarities in cognitive strategies, and/or underlying neural substrates.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrés González-Garrido & Fabiola Gómez-Velázquez & Henrique Sequeira & Julieta Ramos-Loyo & Adriana López-Franco, 2013. "Gender Differences in Visuospatial Working Memory —Does Emotion Matter?," International Journal of Psychological Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 5(1), pages 1-11, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ijpsjl:v:5:y:2013:i:1:p:11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijps/article/download/23433/15558
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijps/article/view/23433
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:ijpsjl:v:5:y:2013:i:1:p:11. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.