Female advantage in speeded colour naming: a special naming factor or superior motor sequencing?

Abstract

Women name colours more quickly than men do, and our recent research suggests that the female advantage for colour naming extends to speeded naming of shapes. The female advantage could reflect a superiority in producing and execuring the motor sequences underlying the required vocal response. Or, women could have faster access to or retrieval of colour labels. The present study tested these two possibilities by administering 3 speeded colour-naming tasks. In the first task, participants named a patch of colour as quickly as possible after it was presented. In the second task, participants made manual (instead of vocal) responses. In the third task, vocal responses were required but a randomly varying delay period was introduced between the presentation of the colour patch and the required response. Females reponded more quickly on the first task but there was no such advantage in the manual or delayed conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that the female advantage for speeded naming tasks reflects an advantage for sequencing movements rather than a special naming ability.