Selective sexual orientation-related differences in object location memory.

Abstract

The present study examined sexual orientation-related differences in object location memory by using 3 object arrays (testing object exchange, object shift, and novel objects conditions) and 1 metric positional memory array. Heterosexual women and homosexual men significantly outperformed heterosexual men in all 3 object arrays. However, there were no group differences in metric positional memory. Heterosexual males expectedly outperformed the other groups in spatial perception (Judgment of Line Orientation; A. L. Benton, K. D. Hamsher, N. R. Varney, & O. Spreen, 1983). Regression modeling revealed that sexual orientation and spatial perception predicted object exchange performance, whereas recalled childhood gender nonconformity, a robust developmental marker of adult sexual orientation, predicted object shift and novel object performance alone. A measure ascribed to the actions of prenatal androgens, the 2nd to 4th finger length ratio, did not predict object location memory. These data may limit possible developmental pathways for sexual variation in selective forms of spatial memory.