Picture and Word Recall Skills as a Measure of Working Memory among Undergraduate Students of Bingham University, Nigeria

Abstract

Working memory is a form of short‐term memory that is involved in keeping track, manipulation and processing of many bits of information used in cognitive activities such as thinking and decision making. It is also implicated in behavior and personality, and is usually terminated after the task has been completed. This study was designed with the purpose of assessing the working memory in male and female undergraduate students with the view of investigating the differences in memory recall as indicative of evolutionary attributes. Undergraduate students (Male n= 64 and females n= 146) of Bingham University, Karu, Nigeria participated in the study. Questionnaire were administered and the working memory ability of the participants were tested through picture and word recall and placement tests modified from Jordan et al. (2001). Sex differences in working memory performance was examined, and scores relationship between 2D:4D ratio as a measure of memory performance was also examined. Our results showed that females students outperformed the male students in all the memory tasks: picture recall (males=7.11±1.61, females=7.70±1.39, t= −2.702, P=0.007), picture placement (5.77±1.79, 6.77±1.85, t= −3.641, P<0.001), word recall (males=7.42±1.46, females=8.00±1.38, t= −2.754, P=0.006) and word placement (males= 6.34±2.07, females=7.08±1.88, t= −2.545, P=0.012). In conclusion, our findings indicate a high memory performance skill by female more than their male counterparts, this supports the evolutionary theory that women are better in memory recall than men.