Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Gender and Sexual Orientation Differences in Cognition Across Adulthood: Age Is Kinder to Women than to Men Regardless of Sexual Orientation

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archives of Sexual Behavior Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Despite some evidence of greater age-related deterioration of the brain in males than in females, gender differences in rates of cognitive aging have proved inconsistent. The present study employed web-based methodology to collect data from people aged 20–65 years (109,612 men; 88,509 women). As expected, men outperformed women on tests of mental rotation and line angle judgment, whereas women outperformed men on tests of category fluency and object location memory. Performance on all tests declined with age but significantly more so for men than for women. Heterosexuals of each gender generally outperformed bisexuals and homosexuals on tests where that gender was superior; however, there were no clear interactions between age and sexual orientation for either gender. At least for these particular tests from young adulthood to retirement, age is kinder to women than to men, but treats heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals just the same.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Effect sizes (partial eta squared, η 2) are reported, which indicate the proportion of variance accounted for by the independent variable or interaction between variables. Cohen (1988) suggested that η 2 values of .01, .06, and .14 can be taken to indicate small, medium, and large effects, respectively.

  2. These results for medicine intake were qualitatively unaffected when those who reported being on hormone replacement therapy (around 2,000) were also excluded from the analysis.

  3. We do not know if the additional 5 s taken by women was spent in the encoding or recognition phases (or both) because only the total time taken to complete the task was recorded.

  4. We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.

References

  • Aartsen, M. J., Martin, M., & Zimprich, D. (2004). Gender differences in level and change in cognitive functioning: Results from the longitudinal aging study Amsterdam. Gerontology, 50, 35–38.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Adams-Price, C. (1992). Eyewitness memory and aging: Predictors of accuracy in recall and person recognition. Psychology and Aging, 7, 602–608.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, K. R. (2005). Gay and lesbian elders. In M. L. Johnson, V. L. Bengtson, P. G. Coleman, & T. B. L. Kirkwood (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of age and ageing (pp. 482–489). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, L. L., Wilson, R. S., Schneider, J. A., Bienias, J. L., Evans, D. A., & Bennett, D. A. (2003). Gender, cognitive decline, and risk of AD in older persons. Neurology, 60, 1777–1781.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barrett-Connor, E., & Kritz-Silverstein, D. (1999). Gender differences in cognitive function with age: The Rancho Bernardo study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 47, 159–164.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Benton, A. L., Varney, N. R., & Hamsher, K. D. (1978). Visuospatial judgment: A clinical test. Archives of Neurology, 35, 364–367.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berg, S. (1996). Aging, behavior, and terminal decline. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (4th ed., pp. 323–337). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birnbaum, M. H. (2004). Human research and data collection via the Internet. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 803–832.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Birren, J. E., & Schaie, K. W. (Eds.). (2001). Handbook of the psychology of aging (5th ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

  • Brayne, C., Gill, C., Paykel, E. S., Huppert, F., O’Connor, D. W. (1995). Cognitive decline in an elderly population: A two wave study of change. Psychological Medicine, 25, 673–683.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, T., & Smith, J. L. (1999). Using the Internet for psychological research: Personality testing on the World Wide Web. British Journal of Psychology, 90, 125–144.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cerella, J., & Hale, S. (1994). The rise and fall in information-processing rates over the life span. Acta Psychologica, 86, 109–197.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cochran, S. D., Keenan, C., Schober, C., & Mays, V. M. (2000). Estimates of alcohol use and clinical treatment needs among homosexually active men and women in the U.S. population. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 1062–1071.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coffey, C. E., Lucke, J. F., Saxton, J. A., Ratcliff, G., Unitas, L. J., Billig, B., et al. (1998). Sex differences in brain aging: A quantitative magnetic resonance imaging study. Archives of Neurology, 55, 169–179.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collaer, M. L. (2001). Judgment of Line Angle and Position Test-15 line version (JLAP 15). Middlebury, VT: Middlebury College.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collaer, M. L., Reimers, S., & Manning, J. T. (2007). Visuospatial performance on an Internet line judgment task and potential hormonal markers: Sex, sexual orientation, and 2D:4D. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9152-1

  • Cowell, P. E., Turetsky, B. I., Gur, R. C., Grossman, R. I., Shtasel, D. L., & Gur, R. E. (1994). Sex differences in aging of the human frontal and temporal lobes. Journal of Neuroscience, 14, 4748–4755.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craik, F. I. M., & Salthouse, T. A. (Eds.). (2000). The handbook of aging and cognition (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

  • Cutler, S. J., Hendricks, J., & Guyer, A. (2003). Age differences in home computer availability and use. Journal of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, S271–S280.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Frias, C. M., Nilsson, L.-G., & Herlitz, A. (2006). Sex differences in cognition are stable over a 10-year period in adulthood and old age. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 13, 574–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Graaf, R., Sandfort, T. G. M., & ten Have, M. (2006). Suicidality and sexual orientation: Differences between men and women in a general population-based sample from the Netherlands. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35, 253–262.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Luca, C. R., Wood, S. J., Anderson, V., Buchanan, J.-A., Proffitt, T. M., Mahony, K., et al. (2003). Normative data from the Cantab. I: Development of executive function over the lifespan. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 242–254.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Depp, C. A., & Jeste, D. V. (2006). Definitions and predictors of successful aging: A comprehensive review of larger quantitative studies. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14, 6–20.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Der, G., & Deary, I. J. (2006). Age and sex differences in reaction time in adulthood: Results from the United Kingdom Health and Lifestyle Survey. Psychology and Aging, 21, 62–73.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dickson, N., Paul, C., & Herbison, P. (2003). Same-sex attraction in a birth cohort: Prevalence and persistence in early adulthood. Social Science & Medicine, 56, 1607–1615.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diehl, M., Willis, S. L., & Schaie, K. W. (1995). Everyday problem solving in older adults: Observational assessment and cognitive correlates. Psychology and Aging, 10, 478–491.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, R. A., Wahlin, A., Maitland, S. B., Hultsch, D. F., Hertzog, C., & Bäckman, L. (2004). Episodic memory change in late adulthood: Generalizability across samples and performance indices. Memory & Cognition, 32, 768–778.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drabble, L., Midanik, L. T., & Trocki, K. (2005). Reports of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems among homosexual, bisexual and heterosexual respondents: Results from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 66, 111–120.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elias, M. F., Elias, P. K., D’Agostino, R. B., Silbershatz, H., & Wolf, P. A. (1997). Role of age, education, and gender on cognitive performance in the Framingham heart study: Community-based norms. Experimental Aging Research, 23, 201–235.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, L., & Ames, M. A. (1987). Neurohormonal functioning and sexual orientation: A theory of homosexuality-heterosexuality. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 233–258.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, L., Robb, B., & Burke, D. (2005). Sexual orientation in United States and Canadian college students. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 569–581.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gosling, S. D., Vazire, S., Srivastava, S., & John, O. P. (2004). Should we trust web-based studies? A comparative analysis of six preconceptions about Internet questionnaires. American Psychologist, 59, 93–104.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grulich, A. E., de Visser, R. O., Smith, A. M. A., Rissel, C. E., & Richters, J. (2003). Sex in Australia: Homosexual experience and recent homosexual encounters. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 27, 155–163.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gur, R. C., Mozley, P. D., Resnick, S. M., Gottlieb, G. E., Kohn, M., Zimmerman, R., et al. (1991). Gender differences in age effect on brain atrophy measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 88, 2845–2849.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halpern, D. F. (2000). Sex differences in cognitive abilities (Third ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halpern, D. F., & LaMay, M. L. (2000). The smarter sex: A critical review of sex differences in intelligence. Educational Psychology Review, 12, 229–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins, H. L., Kramer, A. F., & Capaldi, D. (1992). Aging, exercise, and attention. Psychology and Aging, 7, 643–653.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hayflick, L. (1996). How and why we age (Second ed.). New York: Ballantine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herlitz, A., Nilsson, L.-G., & Bäckman, L. (1997). Gender differences in episodic memory. Memory & Cognition, 25, 801–811.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herlitz, A., & Yonker, J. E. (2004). Hormonal effects on cognition in adults. In R. A. Dixon, L. Bäckman, & L.-G. Nilsson (Eds.), New frontiers in cognitive aging (pp. 253–277). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hommel, B., Li, K. Z. H., & Li, S.-C. (2004). Visual search across the life span. Developmental Psychology, 40, 545–558.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Julien, D., & Chartrand, E. (2005). Recension des études utilisant un échantillon probabiliste sur la santé des personnes gaies, lesbiennes et bisexuelles. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 46, 235–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimura, D. (1999). Sex and cognition. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, M., McKeown, E., Warner, J., Ramsay, A., Johnson, K., Cort, C., et al. (2003). Mental health and quality of life of gay men and lesbians in England and Wales: Controlled, cross-sectional study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 183, 552–558.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lacreuse, A., Herndon, J. G., Killiany, R. J., Rosene, D. L., & Moss, M. B. (1999). Spatial cognition in rhesus monkeys: Male superiority declines with age. Hormones and Behavior, 36, 70–76.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lacreuse, A., Kim, C. B., Rosene, D. L., Killiany, R. J., Moss, M. B., Moore, T. L., et al. (2005). Sex, age, and training modulate spatial memory in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). Behavioral Neuroscience, 119, 118–126.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Larrabee, G. J., & Crook, T. H. (1993). Do men show more rapid age-associated decline in simulated everyday verbal memory than do women? Psychology and Aging, 8, 68–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Larrabee, G. J., Trahan, D. E., Curtiss, G., & Levin, H. S. (1988). Normative data for the verbal selective reminding test. Neuropsychology, 2, 173–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LeVay, S. (1993). The sexual brain. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lövdén, M., Ghisletta, P., & Lindenberger, U. (2005). Social participation attenuates decline in perceptual speed in old and very old age. Psychology and Aging, 20, 423–434.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McGraw, K. O., Tew, M. D., & Williams, J. E. (2000). The integrity of Web-delivered experiments: Can you trust the data? Psychological Science, 11, 502–506.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meinz, E. J., & Salthouse, T. A. (1998). Is age kinder to females than to males? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5, 56–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, J. S., Rauch, G. M., Crawford, K., Rauch, R. A., Konno, S., Akiyama, H., et al. (1999). Risk factors accelerating cerebral degenerative changes, cognitive decline and dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14, 1050–1061.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perfect, T. J., & Maylor, E. A. (Eds.). (2000). Models of cognitive aging. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Perls, T. T. (1995). The oldest-old. Scientific American, 272, 70–75.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perls, T. T., Morris, J. N., Ooi, W. L., & Lipsitz, L. A. (1993). The relationship between age, gender and cognitive performance in the very old: The effect of selective survival. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 41, 1193–1201.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, M., Laeng, B., Latham, K., Jackson, M., Zaiyouna, R., & Richardson, C. (1995). A redrawn Vandenberg & Kuse Mental Rotations test: The effectof sex, sexual orientation, and digit ratio (2D:4D) on mental rotation performance. Brain and Cognition, 28, 39–58.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, M., Manning, J. T., & Reimers, S. (2007). The effects of sex, sexual orientation, and digit ratio (2D:4D) on mental rotation performance. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36. doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9166-8

  • Pruessner, J. C., Collins, D. L., Pruessner, M., & Evans, A. C. (2001). Age and gender predict volume decline in the anterior and posterior hippocampus in early adulthood. Journal of Neuroscience, 21, 194–200.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rabbitt, P. (2005). Cognitive changes across the lifespan. In M. L. Johnson, V. L. Bengtson, P. G. Coleman, & T. B. L. Kirkwood (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of age and ageing (pp. 190–199). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabbitt, P., Chetwynd, A., & McInnes, L. (2003). Do clever brains age more slowly? Further explorations of a nun result. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 63–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, Q., Abrahams, S., & Wilson, G. D. (2003). Sexual-orientation-related differences in verbal fluency. Neuropsychology, 17, 240–246.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, Q., & Wilson, G. D. (2003). Large sexual-orientation-related differences in performance on mental rotation and judgment of line orientation tasks. Neuropsychology, 17, 25–31.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, Q., Wilson, G. D., & Abrahams, S. (2003). Sexual-orientation-related differences in spatial memory. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 9, 376–383.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raz, N. (2000). Aging of the brain and its impact on cognitive performance: Integration of structural and functional findings. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.), The handbook of aging and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 1–90). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reimers, S. (2007). The BBC internet study: General methodology. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36. doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9143-2

  • Reimers, S., & Maylor, E. A. (2005). Task switching across the life span: Effects of age on general and specific switch costs. Developmental Psychology, 41, 661–671.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reimers, S., & Stewart, N. (in press). Adobe Flash as a medium for online experimentation: A test of RT measurement capabilities. Behavior Research Methods.

  • Reips, U.-D. (2002). Standards for Internet-based experimenting. Experimental Psychology, 49, 243–256.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Robins, R. W., Trzesniewski, K. H., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2002). Global self-esteem across the life span. Psychology and Aging, 17, 423–434.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, G., Turcotte, J., & Hasher, L. (April, 2004). The effect of age and gender on visuo-spatial working memory. Poster presented at the 10th Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA.

  • Ryan, H., Wortley, P. M., Easton, A., Pederson, L., & Greenwood, G. (2001). Smoking among lesbians, gays, and bisexuals: A review of the literature. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 21, 142–149.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salthouse, T. A. (1991). Theoretical perspectives on cognitive aging. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salthouse, T. A., Berish, D. E., & Miles, J. D. (2002). The role of cognitive stimulation on the relations between age and cognitive functioning. Psychology and Aging, 17, 548–557.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salthouse, T. A., Kausler, D. H., & Saults, J. S. (1990). Age, self-assessment health status, and cognition. Journal of Gerontology, 45, P156–P160.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sandfort, T. G. M., de Graaf, R., & Bijl, R. V. (2003). Same-sex sexuality and quality of life: Findings from the Netherlands mental health survey and incidence study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 32, 15–22.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schaie, K. W. (1996). Intellectual development in adulthood: The Seattle longitudinal study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selwyn, N., Gorard, S., Furlong, J., & Madden, L. (2003). Older adults’ use of information and communications technology in everyday life. Ageing and Society, 23, 561–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, I., Choi, J., & Peters, M. (2007). The hunter-gatherer theory of sex differences in spatial abilities: Data from 40 countries. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36. doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9168-6

  • Silverman, I., & Eals, M. (1992). Sex differences in spatial abilities: Evolutionary theory and data. In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 533–549). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, T., Verhaeghen, P., Ghisletta, P., Lindenberger, U., & Baltes, P. B. (2003). The fate of cognition in very old age: Six-year longitudinal findings in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE). Psychology and Aging, 18, 318–331.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sinnott, J. D., & Shifren, K. (2001). Gender and aging: Gender differences and gender roles. In J. E. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (5th ed., pp. 454–476). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Springer, S. P., & Deutsch, G. (1998). Left brain, right brain: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience (5th ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, S. T., Zelinski, E. M., & Wallace, R. B. (2000). Age, medical conditions, and gender as interactive predictors of cognitive performance: The effects of selective survival. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 55B, P381–P383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiederholt, W. C., Cahn, D., Butters, N. M., Salmon, D. P., Kritz-Silverstein, D., & Barrett-Connor, E. (1993). Effects of age, gender and education on selected neuropsychological tests in an elderly community cohort. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 41, 639–647.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Woodcock, R. W., & Johnson, M. B. (1989). Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised. Allen, TX: DLM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yonker, J. E., Adolfsson, R., Eriksson, E., Hellstrand, M., Nilsson, L.-G., & Herlitz, A. (2006). Verified hormone therapy improves episodic memory performance in healthy postmenopausal women. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 13, 291–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zelinski, E. M., & Stewart, S. T. (1998). Individual differences in 16-year memory changes. Psychology and Aging, 13, 622–630.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The first and second authors contributed equally to the preparation of this article. We are grateful to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for their extensive collaboration on this project, and to Qazi Rahman and Friederike Schlaghecken for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Elizabeth A. Maylor

  2. Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK

    Stian Reimers

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

    Jean Choi

  4. Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, USA

    Marcia L. Collaer

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Michael Peters

  6. Department of Psychology, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada

    Irwin Silverman

Authors
  1. Elizabeth A. Maylor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stian Reimers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jean Choi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Marcia L. Collaer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Michael Peters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Irwin Silverman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth A. Maylor.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Maylor, E.A., Reimers, S., Choi, J. et al. Gender and Sexual Orientation Differences in Cognition Across Adulthood: Age Is Kinder to Women than to Men Regardless of Sexual Orientation. Arch Sex Behav 36, 235–249 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9155-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9155-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation