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Sex differences in the effectiveness of elaborative strategy use: knowledge access comparisons
M S Jones1, L Yokoi, D J Johnson
1Department of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton 92634, USA.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|August 1, 1996
Summary
Girls showed better recall and less mental effort for feminine pairs compared to boys, suggesting sex differences in knowledge access. Boys and girls performed similarly on masculine and mixed pairs.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Understanding sex differences in learning and memory is crucial for educational strategies.
- Elaborative strategy use is a key component of effective learning and knowledge acquisition.
- Mental effort demands associated with learning strategies can vary based on content and individual factors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate sex differences in recall and mental effort demands during elaborative strategy use.
- To examine how knowledge-base access influences learning of sex-typed (masculine/feminine) and mixed associative pairs.
- To compare the performance of second and third-grade boys and girls on memory tasks.
Main Methods:
- Dual-task methodology combining elaborative strategy use with a concurrent finger-tapping task to measure mental effort.
- Associative learning lists comprising masculine, feminine, and mixed item types were presented to participants.
- Recall performance and finger-tapping interference scores (indexing mental effort) were analyzed based on participant sex and item type.
Main Results:
- No significant sex differences were found in the recall of mixed or masculine pairs.
- Girls demonstrated superior recall for feminine pairs compared to boys.
- Elaboration of feminine pairs required less mental effort for girls than for boys, as indicated by finger-tapping data.
Conclusions:
- Findings suggest that sex differences in knowledge-base access may influence the learning of sex-typed information.
- Girls may have more accessible or efficiently processed knowledge structures for feminine-associated information.
- Elaborative strategies are differentially demanding in terms of mental effort depending on the content's relation to established knowledge structures and sex.