Sex Differences in Vivid Memories

Abstract

There has been little previous research on sex differences in the content and affective evaluations of vivid autobiographical memories. Using a paradigm similar to Rubin and Kozin [1], subjects in Experiment 1 described and evaluated their most vivid personal memory and subjects in Experiment 2 described both their most vivid pleasant and unpleasant memory. Males were more likely than females to report memories having competence themes (in each experiment) and females were more likely than males to report memories involving dating (in Experiment 2). Also, in each experiment females reported experiencing greater emotional arousal than males while writing their descriptions, but sex differences in reported emotional arousal at the time the described event occurred were reduced and not reliable. In Experiment 1, which required subjects to report only their one most vivid memory, both sexes were more likely to describe an unpleasant memory than a pleasant one.