Sex differences in the visuospatial sketchpad in scholar children

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Miguel Ángel Hernández Balderas
Gloria Rangel Félix
Juan Carlos Zavala González
Helena Romero Romero
Juan Silva Pereyra
Irma Yolanda Del Río Portilla
María de Lourdes Luviano Vargas
Anaid Juanita Vera Romero
Vicente Guerrero
Jorge Bernal Hernández

Abstract

This paper studies sex differences in working memory related to the visuospatial sketchpad and its interaction with the central executive through performance of a dual task with different levels of difficulty. Fourteen boys and 14 girls between 9 and 10 years old performed a memory task (primary task) with 4 levels of difficulty corresponding to 4 memory load levels, and a Go/No-go task as a visuospatial stimuli processing task (secondary task). The results demonstrated that the increase in the difficulty level in the primary task makes subjects have fewer correct responses in the secondary task; however, this only affected males significantly. These results might be a consequence of the amount of resources given by the central executive to perform the tasks: more resources were given to accomplish the primary task than to the secondary task, affecting the performance of the second. One may concluded that the relations between the central executive (processing) and the visuospatial sketchpad (storage) seem to be determined by a higher resource demand required by the storage in the memory, to the detriment of the processing activities of the central executive.

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How to Cite
Hernández Balderas, M. Ángel, Rangel Félix, G., Zavala González, J. C., Romero Romero, H., Silva Pereyra, J., Del Río Portilla, I. Y., Luviano Vargas, M. de L., Vera Romero, A. J., Guerrero, V., & Bernal Hernández, J. (2012). Sex differences in the visuospatial sketchpad in scholar children. Journal of Behavior, Health & Social Issues, 4(2), 103–115. https://doi.org/10.22201/fesi.20070780.2012.4.2.34111