Verbal fluency: The impact of gender and category on ‘free-listing’
Verbal fluency: The impact of gender and category on ‘free-listing’
1. Abstract
Recent studies have proven that women are better at naming living things whilst men
have an advantage at naming non-living things. This study is a replication of Laws
(2004) study in order to reveal if males and females do differ in lexical sizing. The
aims were as follows (1) gender effect on naming categories (2) the interaction
between gender and order (3) order effect on naming categories. A 2-tailed
hypothesis was formed predicting that females will be better at naming living things
and males will be better at naming non-living things. A total of 797 participants
completed the task, 768 were sufficient for analysis. The main findings of this study
supported the hypothesis.
2. Introduction
Studies over time have suggested women are better at naming living things whilst
men have an advantage at naming non-living things. Hyde (1981) analysed data
from three million individuals and concluded men are better at spatial processing and
women are better at emotion, face and verbal processing (men likelier to endure
dyslexia, stutter and stammers). What is the reasoning behind this? Is this something
differentiated in the brains of men and women, a product of the environment, or, a
combination of both? Sex differences in relation to verbal abilities has been of high
research interest and according to Scheuringer et al. (2017), men perform equally as
well as women in semantic fluency (Munro et al. 2012) in some cases even
outperform, whilst females are said to be better performing in phonemic fluency
(Burton et al, 2005).
This study is a replication of Laws (2004) ‘Sex differences in lexical size across
semantic categories’ – which set out a series of (3) experiments using semantic
fluency for living (animals, fruits) and non-living (tools, vehicles) to figure out whether
males and females differ in lexicon sizes. A sample of 300 males and 300 females
was used to provide a normative database, they were retested in a sub-sample for
another minute to determine time fluency and to finish - a new sample (of males and
females) was tested using four minutes to exhaust their lexicon. The overall results
of the study found that there was an advantage for females naming ‘fruits’ and males
naming ‘tools’, however added time had no retrieval impact to their lexicon.
A more recent study, Scheuringer (2017) investigated verbal and phonemic fluency
difference in genders using 19 females (luteal phase) and 23 males. They were
given three instructions – one neutral, one emphasizing on word switching and one
emphasizing clustering. The hypothesis predicted that men would perform better in
clustering whilst females would perform better in switching. The results concluded
neutral instructions and an emphasis on clustering had no gender effect however
word switching was better performed by females. A similar study by Aksamovic et al
(2019) tested this same set of instructions on 61 pupils in year one and two at a
primary school (39 boys and 22 girls). The results indicated a strong link between
verbal fluency and academic success however there was again no gender effect.
A final study by Rahman et al (2003) investigated the difference between 60
lesbians, 60 gay men, 60 heterosexual (60) men and (60) females. This study
1
, Verbal fluency: The impact of gender and category on ‘free-listing’
covered a wide range of lexical aspects I.e. letter, category and synonym fluency.
The results found that gay men and lesbian women performed showed opposite-sex
shifts, and heterosexual males and females only demonstrated a difference via
category and synonym fluency only.
This study required different instructions, followed by only four potential orders of
categories for recall which were combined with vocal, category fluency. The aims
were as follows (1) gender effect on naming categories (2) the interaction between
gender and order (3) order effect on naming categories. A 2-tailed hypothesis was
formed predicting that females will be better at naming living things and males will be
better at naming non-living things.
2
Verbal fluency: The impact of gender and category on ‘free-listing’
1. Abstract
Recent studies have proven that women are better at naming living things whilst men
have an advantage at naming non-living things. This study is a replication of Laws
(2004) study in order to reveal if males and females do differ in lexical sizing. The
aims were as follows (1) gender effect on naming categories (2) the interaction
between gender and order (3) order effect on naming categories. A 2-tailed
hypothesis was formed predicting that females will be better at naming living things
and males will be better at naming non-living things. A total of 797 participants
completed the task, 768 were sufficient for analysis. The main findings of this study
supported the hypothesis.
2. Introduction
Studies over time have suggested women are better at naming living things whilst
men have an advantage at naming non-living things. Hyde (1981) analysed data
from three million individuals and concluded men are better at spatial processing and
women are better at emotion, face and verbal processing (men likelier to endure
dyslexia, stutter and stammers). What is the reasoning behind this? Is this something
differentiated in the brains of men and women, a product of the environment, or, a
combination of both? Sex differences in relation to verbal abilities has been of high
research interest and according to Scheuringer et al. (2017), men perform equally as
well as women in semantic fluency (Munro et al. 2012) in some cases even
outperform, whilst females are said to be better performing in phonemic fluency
(Burton et al, 2005).
This study is a replication of Laws (2004) ‘Sex differences in lexical size across
semantic categories’ – which set out a series of (3) experiments using semantic
fluency for living (animals, fruits) and non-living (tools, vehicles) to figure out whether
males and females differ in lexicon sizes. A sample of 300 males and 300 females
was used to provide a normative database, they were retested in a sub-sample for
another minute to determine time fluency and to finish - a new sample (of males and
females) was tested using four minutes to exhaust their lexicon. The overall results
of the study found that there was an advantage for females naming ‘fruits’ and males
naming ‘tools’, however added time had no retrieval impact to their lexicon.
A more recent study, Scheuringer (2017) investigated verbal and phonemic fluency
difference in genders using 19 females (luteal phase) and 23 males. They were
given three instructions – one neutral, one emphasizing on word switching and one
emphasizing clustering. The hypothesis predicted that men would perform better in
clustering whilst females would perform better in switching. The results concluded
neutral instructions and an emphasis on clustering had no gender effect however
word switching was better performed by females. A similar study by Aksamovic et al
(2019) tested this same set of instructions on 61 pupils in year one and two at a
primary school (39 boys and 22 girls). The results indicated a strong link between
verbal fluency and academic success however there was again no gender effect.
A final study by Rahman et al (2003) investigated the difference between 60
lesbians, 60 gay men, 60 heterosexual (60) men and (60) females. This study
1
, Verbal fluency: The impact of gender and category on ‘free-listing’
covered a wide range of lexical aspects I.e. letter, category and synonym fluency.
The results found that gay men and lesbian women performed showed opposite-sex
shifts, and heterosexual males and females only demonstrated a difference via
category and synonym fluency only.
This study required different instructions, followed by only four potential orders of
categories for recall which were combined with vocal, category fluency. The aims
were as follows (1) gender effect on naming categories (2) the interaction between
gender and order (3) order effect on naming categories. A 2-tailed hypothesis was
formed predicting that females will be better at naming living things and males will be
better at naming non-living things.
2
