SEX-DIFFERENCES IN THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ELABORATIVE STRATEGY USE - KNOWLEDGE ACCESS COMPARISONS

Dual-task procedures-elaborative strategy use and finger-tapping-were used to examine both recall and mental effort demands of elaboration s trategy use with equal numbers of boys and girls at grades two and thr ee. Knowledge-base access was examined by comparing different item typ es in the associative learning list: masculine, feminine, and mixed. R esults showed that boys and girls did not differ in their recall of ar bitrarily paired items (e.g., mixed pairs). A Sex by Item Type (mascul ine vs feminine) interaction, however, revealed that for feminine pair s girls recalled more than boys, whereas for masculine pairs no sex di fference was observed. Finger tapping interference scores indexed ment al effort. Similar to the recall findings, results indicated that the elaboration of feminine pairs required less mental effort by girls in contrast to boys. Elaboration of masculine pairs was not associated wi th a sex difference. The results were discussed in terms of sex differ ences in knowledge-base access. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.