Sex Differences In Learning Research Articles

CHILDREN'S ACHIEVEMENT EXPECTATIONS AS A FUNCTION OF SOCIAL REINFORCEMENT, SEX OF S, AND TEST ANXIETY

24 8and 9-year-old children of each sex and at low and high levels of anxiety as measured by the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (N = 96) were divided equally into 6 experimental groups according to the type of pretraining (success, failure, or no pretraining experience) and reinforcement condition (social reinforcement or nonreinforcement from 1 of 2 males) in a subsequent angle-matching task. The Ss' achievement expectations were assessed prior to and following the experimental task. Major results were: (a) Following social reinforcement, expectations increased, the effect being stronger for girls than boys. (b) Following nonreinforcement, achievement expectations remained stable for both sexes. (c) Initial achievement expectations correlated negatively with test anxiety for girls. (d) Change in achievement expectation correlated positively with test anxiety for boys in the social reinforcement condition. The sex difference in the facilitating effects of social reinforcement on achievement expectations was considered as being part of a possible Sex of S by Sex of E interaction. It is suggested that sex differences in learning and cognition may be greater than has been recognized. Theorizing on the causes of the negative relation between a high level of test anxiety and children's achievement behaviors and intellectual

Age and Sex Differences in Learning and Performance of an Arm Speed Motor Task

Abstract Initial performance, final performance, and the amount of learning in 50 trials of the rho test motor performance task were obtained on 120 boys and girls, aged 10 and 14. Initial and final performance showed significant age, sex, and age w/i sex differences. The amount of learning showed no differences.

A test of sex differences in instrumental appetitive learning by rats

A total of 48 laboratory rats, half male and half female, were trained and extinguished on instrumental bar-pressing for either 16% or 64% sucrose incentives. No consistent sex differences were found in either acquisition or variability of bar-press responding, or in extinction. The only statistically reliable difference indicated that males were more variable in responding for the 16% sucrose incentive, as measured by the range of scores over each week. It is concluded that no real sex differences in learning proficiency obtain under the experimental conditions employed, and that therefore the practice of using mainly or exclusively female rats in our laboratory is methodologically sound.

Sex differences in learning

Archer (1960) found some consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams more meaningful to males, some more so to females, and others neutral in meaningfulness. In an experiment, Archer, Cejka, & Thompson (1961) found both males and females learned the male list quickest. The present study was a replication of the Archer, Cejka, and Thompson study, and while the results of our study were negative, the trends were in the predicted direction.

Sex Differences in Learning and Forgetting of Partly Connected Meaningful Material

Sex Differences in Learning and Forgetting of Partly Connected Meaningful Material

Sex Differences in Learning to Walk a Tight Wire

Sex Differences in Learning to Walk a Tight Wire