Sex differences in the correlation of memory span with scan and other episodic memory tasks

Three studies of the relationship between memory span and other measures of memory and information processing are reported here. These other measures included memory scanning rate, the short- and long-term components of free recall, and word recognition from long-term memory. All three studies produced evidence for a sex difference in the correlation of these tasks with memory span. The first study produced a partial replication of Chiang and Atkinson's report (Memory & Cognition, 1976, 4,661–667) of a sex difference: for males, span and scanning rate were unrelated, while for females they were positively correlated. The second study showed that span and the primary memory component of free recall had a modest positive correlation for females but not for males, while span was unrelated to measures of secondary or long-term memory for females but was consistently positively related for males. In the third study, recognition accuracy and span were uncorrelated for females, but positively correlated for males. Finally, a reanalysis of data from a large-scale study by Underwood, Baruch, and Malmi (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1978, 107, 393–419) also showed evidence of similar sex differences. Sex differences involving the correlation of memory span with other cognitive test performances seem quite general and need to be taken account of in the analyses of individual differences in memory and cognitive processes. A tentative theory is presented to account for the differences found in these studies.     

Use of geometry for spatial reorientation in children applies only to symmetric spaces

Proponents of the geometric module hypothesis argue that following disorientation, many species reorient by use of macro‐environment geometry. It is suggested that attention to the surface layout geometry of natural terrain features may have been selected for over evolutionary time due to the enduring and unambiguous location information it provides. Paradoxically, however, tests of the hypothesis have been exclusively conducted in symmetric (hence ‘unnatural’ and geometrically ambiguous) environments. The present series of studies examines reorientation by 18‐month–3‐year‐old children in a rectangular versus irregular quadrilateral enclosure (Study 1), a rectangular versus irregular quadrilateral array (Study 2) and an isosceles versus irregular triangular array (Study 3). Children were successful in symmetric but not asymmetric environments, casting doubt on the functional argument for an empirical basis of the geometric module hypothesis.     

Bilingual comparison of Mandarin and English cognitive bias tasks

Most research into cognitive biases has used Western samples, despite potential East-West socio-cultural differences. One reason is the lack of appropriate measures for non-Westerners. This study is about cross-linguistic equivalence which needs to be established before assessing cross-cultural differences in future research. We developed parallel Mandarin and English measures of interpretation bias and attention bias using back-translation and decentering procedures. We assessed task equivalence by administering both sets of measures to 47 bilingual Mandarin-English speakers. Interpretation bias measurement was similar and reliable across language versions, confirming suitability of the Mandarin versions for future cross-cultural research. By contrast, scores on attention bias tasks did not intercorrelate reliably, suggesting that nonverbal stimuli such as pictures or facial expressions of emotion might present better prospects for cross-cultural comparison. The development of the first set of equivalent measures of interpretation bias in an Eastern language paves the way for future research investigating East-West differences in biased cognition.     

Perceptual prioritization of self-associated voices

Information associated with the self is prioritized relative to information associated with others and is therefore processed more quickly and accurately. Across three experiments, we examined whether a new externally-generated voice could become associated with the self and thus be prioritized in perception. In the first experiment, participants learned associations between three unfamiliar voices and three identities (self, friend, stranger). Participants then made speeded judgements of whether voice-identity pairs were correctly matched, or not. A clear self-prioritization effect was found, with participants showing quicker and more accurate responses to the newly self-associated voice relative to either the friend- or stranger- voice. In two further experiments, we tested whether this prioritization effect increased if the self-voice was gender-matched to the identity of the participant (Experiment 2) or if the self-voice was chosen by the participant (Experiment 3). Gender-matching did not significantly influence prioritization; the self-voice was similarly prioritized when it matched the gender identity of the listener as when it did not. However, we observed that choosing the self-voice did interact with prioritization (Experiment 3); the self-voice became more prominent, via lesser prioritization of the other identities, when the self-voice was chosen relative to when it was not. Our findings have implications for the design and selection of individuated synthetic voices used for assistive communication devices, suggesting that agency in choosing a new vocal identity may modulate the distinctiveness of that voice relative to others.