6.1 Memory

Topic:

Do Men and Women Differ in the Way They Remember Location Information?

Statistical Concepts Covered:

In this applet you will learn more on how to interpret charts, especially misleading charts, and distinguish between significant and chance differences.

Introduction:

The study of cognitive differences between men and women has been a fertile ground for researchers over the past 20 years. In this chapter you read about the types of encoding processes people use to create enduring memories. Are gender-based differences in memory rare? In 1992, Silverman and Eals investigated gender differences in object location memory. Participants were asked to study an image containing several objects. Then, after a short delay, a new image was presented. In this image, some of the objects were in the same locations as in the original image, but others’ locations had been swapped with other objects. The goal of the task was to determine which objects had been moved. (If you would like to take the experiment yourself, you can find an online version of the task at the Online Psychology Laboratory.) Silverman and Eals’ results showed that women outperformed men at this task.

The applet for this unit will allow you to explore results from the online version of the experiment linked above. Experimental data from 100 male and 100 female college students will be presented for analysis. You will be able to analyze the data from multiple perspectives, some of which may suggest clear differences, and others may be harder to interpret. You might be surprised by how much you can influence interpretation of the data just by changing the layout of the graph. You will also investigate the role of practice on performance and try to determine just how large a difference between groups needs to be before you are comfortable saying that a true and reliable difference really exists.

Richard Alan Hullinger, Indiana University, Bloomington
Melanie Maggard, University of the Rockies

Question

Plot the data for the number of objects correctly marked as moved (CrMv) across all five trials. Which of the trials shows the largest difference between the genders for this measure? (Cycle through the various Trials in the dropdown, starting with “Trial 1”, and compare the scores for men and women.)

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct.
Incorrect.
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