Reported head injury and sex differences in color naming, color matching, and digit-string matching.

It was hypothesized that the observed sex differences on three speeded tasks could be accounted for in terms of the greater incidence of head injury in men than in women. In two studies of 64 male and 66 female college students significant sex differences were found on digit-string matching and color-matching tasks. When the data from those 39 subjects with reported histories of head injury were eliminated from the analysis or head-injury reports were statistically controlled, significant sex differences remained. Digit-string matching times were significantly correlated with reported head injury in both studies, suggesting that this test is sensitive to residual effects of head injury.