Gender differences in cognitive development in cohorts of young, middle, and older adulthood over 12 years

Understanding gender differences in human cognitive development may contribute to understanding the gender differences in outcomes in cognitive ageing. However, evaluation of this topic has been hindered by a lack of representative, longitudinal data from different aged cohorts measured on the same cognitive tests. Gender differences in cognitive abilities were evaluated in three population-based cohorts (baseline age-span 20 to 76, 52% female, 94% Caucasian, 5% Asian and 1% other ethnic background, baseline N = 7,485), initially drawn from the electoral role in Australia where voting is compulsory, that were assessed four times over 12 years on measures of verbal memory, processing speed, working memory, verbal ability, and reaction time. Linear mixed models showed that within each cohort, women had better verbal memory and men had better working memory and faster reaction times. Verbal ability and processing speed showed variable gender differences in the young and middle-aged cohorts but no difference in the oldest cohort. In young and middle age, there were no gender differences in rates of change in verbal memory, processing speed, reaction time, verbal ability, or working memory. In old age, the gender differences were only observed in rates of change in verbal memory. Women showed more verbal memory decline between the 8-year and 12-year follow-ups than men, despite retaining higher average memory performance than men. We conclude that from ages 20-76, gender differences in cognitive abilities are stable except for faster memory ageing among women in the eighth decade. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).