Sex/gender differences in verbal fluency and verbal episodic memory - a meta-analysis

Hirnstein, M.; Stuebs, J.; Moè, A.; Hausmann, M.

Abstract

Women are thought to fare better in verbal abilities, especially in verbal fluency and verbal memory tasks. However, the last meta-analysis on sex/gender differences in verbal fluency dates from 1988. While verbal memory has only recently been investigated meta-analytically, a comprehensive meta-analysis is lacking that focuses on verbal memory as it is typically assessed, for example, in neuropsychological settings. Based on 496 effect sizes and 355,173 participants, the current meta-analysis found that women/girls outperformed men/boys in phonemic fluency (d = 0.12-0.13) but not in semantic fluency (d = 0.01-0.02), where the sex/gender difference appeared to be category-depended. Women/girls also outperformed men/boys in recall (d = 0.28) and recognition (d = 0.12-0.17). Although effect sizes are small, the female advantage was relatively stable over the past 50 years and across lifetime. Published articles reported stronger female advantages than unpublished studies and first authors reported better performance for members of their own sex/gender. We conclude that a small female advantage in phonemic fluency, recall, and recognition exists and is partly subject to publication bias. Considerable variance suggests further contributing factors, such as participants’ language and country/region.

Citation

Hirnstein, M., Stuebs, J., Moè, A., & Hausmann, M. (2023). Sex/gender differences in verbal fluency and verbal episodic memory - a meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(1), 67-90. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221082116

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 23, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jul 22, 2022
• Publication Date: 2023-01
• Deposit Date: Jan 24, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 10, 2023
• Journal: Perspectives on Psychological Science
• Print ISSN: 1745-6916
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-6924
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 67-90
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221082116
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1217283