Hippocampus
Are there sex differences in learning and memory?
There are numerous examples of differences between males and females in performance on various tests of learning and memory.
- Males are “better” at passive avoidance learning than females (e.g., males learn more quickly to not leave a platform because they will get shocked).
- Females are “better” at active avoidance learning than males (e.g., females learn to respond more quickly to a cue such as a light or tone that signals that they should move to another part of a chamber to avoid being shocked).
- However, Beatty has argued that such differences may simply reflect sex differences in activity. That is, females are more active than males and as a consequence they may do better on active avoidance tasks because of an increased likelihood of making the association between movement to a given part of a chamber , cue presentation and a decrease in shock. Females may do more poorly on passive avoidance tasks because of they can’t sit still.