Abstract
BackgroundFor unknown reasons, females outperform males on tests of psychomotor processing speed (PS), such as the Coding and Symbol Search subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.MethodIn the present study, the effects of intelligence, memory, personality, fine motor speed, gross motor dexterity, height, weight, age, sex, and education on psychomotor processing speed were studied in an outpatient sample (n = 130).ResultsModerate (r > .40) correlations were found between PS and verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, verbal memory, and fine motor speed. Weak (r > .20) correlations were found between PS and gross motor dexterity, extraversion, education, weight, and sex. Females outperformed males in PS and in fine motor speed. Stepwise linear regression analysis indicated nonverbal reasoning, fine motor speed, and sex as independent predictors of PS.ConclusionsOne interpretation of the results is that the factors underlying sex differences in processing speed are not psychological but neurological or physiological in nature and therefore a wider variety of measures from these disciplines are needed for further studies. For clinical assessment purposes, psychological tests should preferably provide different norms for male and female PS scores.
Highlights
Fast performance on simple cognitive tasks such as copying digits and symbols, locating identical pictures, or rapidly naming objects correlates with other cognitive skills such as logical reasoning, vocabulary, and memory [1, 2]
Gross manual dexterity (Box and Block) was low in both men and women, and fine motor speed (Grooved Pegboard) was lower than the population mean for women
Among the factors analyzed in the present study, only fine motor speed meets this criterion, as females are faster on the Pegboard test in population samples and the test score has a moderate correlation with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) processing speed (PS) scores
Summary
Fast performance on simple cognitive tasks such as copying digits and symbols, locating identical pictures, or rapidly naming objects correlates with other cognitive skills such as logical reasoning, vocabulary, and memory [1, 2]. For this reason, psychomotor processing speed (PS) is considered to be one of the factors of intelligence. Females outperform males on tests of psychomotor processing speed (PS), such as the Coding and Symbol Search subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
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