Many studies attribute better word memory to women, compared to men. Norwegian research takes stock.
- More than 900,000 people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease in France.
- 60% of patients are women.
Who has the best memory? For many years, scientific studies have focused on the differences between men and women, from the point of view of memory. Some claim that women are able to remember more words than men. But a team from the University of Bergen, Norway, finds that there is “not had much data to support this claim”. These researchers decided to remedy this by carrying out their own research.
Women have slightly better word memory than men
To achieve this, the scientists gathered data from different cognitive studies carried out on the subject. This meta-analysis brought together data from more than 350,000 participants, “making it one of the largest studies to date examining the possibility of female advantage” on this aspect, say the authors. The results of the different studies were mixed: some suggested a female advantage with regard to memory, others a male advantage. Other smaller studies found no difference between men and women. After the analysis, however, the Norwegian researchers managed to find a difference. “Women are better concludes Marco Hirnstein, co-author of the study, in a university statement. The female advantage is consistent across time and lifetime, but it is also relatively small.“
Why are we interested in the differences in memory between men and women?
For the authors of this research, such a meta-analysis does not only aim to focus on the differences between men and women. The goal is also medical: these results could “be useful in diagnosing and treating medical conditions that differ according to a person’s biological sex”. For example, in the case of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, taking into account the fact that women have better abilities to remember vocabulary, could change the way screening is carried out. The diagnostic thresholds could be lowered, to better reflect their skills. “Men, on the other hand, might have a problem with overdiagnosing Alzheimer’s disease if compared to women who are already at a higher cognitive level to begin with.“, add the authors.
Differences between men and women to put into perspective
If women have a slight advantage in memorizing words, the researchers point out that “most intellectual skills show no or minimal difference in average performance between men and women”. “Women excel in some tasks, while men excel in others“, concludes Marco Hirnstein.