There is a lot of conversation in society around memory, both out of concern with medical conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s and the more common jokes about old age and forgetfulness. In our home, we joke frequently about who forgets more frequently. It might be on a grocery list, a repair schedule or something as simple as getting the mail. Researchers have also asked the question, “Which sex has a better memory?” CBS News brought this interesting information to our attention in their article, “Who has better memory, men or women?”
“There is currently a global epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease that if we don’t figure out how to treat, is going to tank our children’s economy,” Jill Goldstein, PhD, director of research at the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told CBS News.
The research finds that middle-aged women outperformed men on all measures of memory. However, the study also confirmed that for many women, memory does decline after they go through menopause.
For the study, researchers looked at 212 men and women aged 45 to 55. They assessed participants’ memory using cognitive testing that focused on memorization, semantic processing, and associative memory. Semantic processing tests challenged participants to name as many related words as they could think of in various categories, such as animals or fruits and vegetables. Associative memory tests involved matching names to faces and occupations.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
