Gender, Spatial Learning Trials, and Object Recall.

Previous researchers have reported women doing better than men in object recall. The current study tested for gender differences in object recall over three memorization trials using gender neutral stimuli. Fifty men and 53 women viewed pictures of 60 objects (15 in each of four quadrants) for one minute, and then had three minutes to recall as many objects and locations as they could. This procedure was followed over three trials. Women performed better than men, and the difference increased across trials. Training was successful as participants recalled significantly more objects and locations on trial 3 than on trial 1. These results supported previous findings of superior object recall in women relative to men, but they also suggested that the gender difference is not only maintained, but also increases with additional learning opportunities. It was concluded that the gender difference favoring women is not vulnerable to additional learning trials