SEX-DIFFERENCES IN THE PROCESSING OF ODD AND EVEN NUMBERS

Previous research has shown that decisions about odd numbers take long er than decisions about even numbers (the ''odd effect''). It has also been shown that females are better at processing linguistic stimuli a nd males are better at processing spatial stimuli. In the present expe riment, male and female subjects made odd versus even classification j udgments on numbers presented visually in three different formats: dig its, number words, and dot patterns. Males showed longer decision time s for odd numbers only when the numbers were presented in the dot patt ern format. Females showed this effect only when the stimuli were pres ented in the word format. These results suggest that a differential sp eed of response to odd and even numbers is found most strongly when th e stimuli are presented in a format which is processed more efficientl y by the subjects. This finding may imply that the effect is being pro duced by some higher order cognitive process, based on higher order re presentations that do not necessarily involve linguistic or verbal cod ing.