Spatial relational learning and memory abilities do not differ between men and women in a real-world, open-field environment

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_B8543E0FC531
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Spatial relational learning and memory abilities do not differ between men and women in a real-world, open-field environment
Journal
Behavioural Brain Research
Author(s)
Banta Lavenex P., Lavenex P.
ISSN
1872-7549
ISSN-L
0166-4328
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2010
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
207
Number
1
Pages
125-137
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tPublication Status: ppublish
Abstract
This study assesses gender differences in spatial and non-spatial relational learning and memory in adult humans behaving freely in a real-world, open-field environment. In Experiment 1, we tested the use of proximal landmarks as conditional cues allowing subjects to predict the location of rewards hidden in one of two sets of three distinct locations. Subjects were tested in two different conditions: (1) when local visual cues marked the potentially-rewarded locations, and (2) when no local visual cues marked the potentially-rewarded locations. We found that only 17 of 20 adults (8 males, 9 females) used the proximal landmarks to predict the locations of the rewards. Although females exhibited higher exploratory behavior at the beginning of testing, males and females discriminated the potentially-rewarded locations similarly when local visual cues were present. Interestingly, when the spatial and local information conflicted in predicting the reward locations, males considered both spatial and local information, whereas females ignored the spatial information. However, in the absence of local visual cues females discriminated the potentially-rewarded locations as well as males. In Experiment 2, subjects (9 males, 9 females) were tested with three asymmetrically-arranged rewarded locations, which were marked by local cues on alternate trials. Again, females discriminated the rewarded locations as well as males in the presence or absence of local cues. In sum, although particular aspects of task performance might differ between genders, we found no evidence that women have poorer allocentric spatial relational learning and memory abilities than men in a real-world, open-field environment.
Keywords
Adult, Analysis of Variance, Association Learning/physiology, Cues, Discrimination Learning/physiology, Environment, Exploratory Behavior/physiology, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Recall/physiology, Middle Aged, Photic Stimulation, Problem Solving/physiology, Psychomotor Performance/physiology, Reward, Sex Characteristics, Space Perception/physiology, Spatial Behavior/physiology, Time Factors, Visual Perception/physiology
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
25/10/2012 14:37
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:26
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