Resumen

HERNANDEZ-BALDERAS, Miguel Ángel et al. Sex differences in the visuospatial sketchpad in scholar children. J. behav. health soc. ISSUES [online]. 2012, vol.4, n.2, pp.103-115. ISSN 2007-0780.  https://doi.org/10.5460/jbhsi.v4.2.34111.

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.

Palabras llave : Sex differences in children; visuospatial sketchpad.

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