Age and Sex Differences in Neurobehavioral Performance: A Study of Portuguese Elementary School Children

Abstract

In this study normative data were obtained on measures of IQ, visual/motor, motor and memory functions among Portuguese elementary school children. Subjects were 228 females and 275 males, 8.0 to 11.9 years of age, in grades 2 through 4, who participated in a dental study. Performance on all tests improved with increasing age. Females performed better in rote verbal learning, psychomotor speed, and speed of information processing. Males had higher scores on tests of visual learning, visual memory, and fine motor speed and coordination. Nonverbal IQ had a significant impact on all tests except motor speed and coordination. Results represent an initial attempt to evaluate Portuguese children in educational and medical settings.

Stroop Color-Word Interference Test: Normative data for Spanish-speaking pediatric population

“…This pattern is similar to those reported in previous studies (e.g. Comalli et al, 1962;Ligon, 1932;Martins et al, 2005;Oliveira et al, 2016;Stroop, 1935) and may correlate with the maturation of children (Tamm, Menon, & Reiss, 2002). Younger children tend to get lower scores than older children in the Stroop Word and Stroop Color test because of their lower reading fluency and color identification, which progressively develops with age (Ligon, 1932).…”

“…There is no consensus in the literature on the influence of sex on Stroop performance. Some studies like Martins et al (2005) found significant differences in favor of girls in all Stroop scores, while other studies such as Armengol (2002) did not report any differences. The same discrepancies occur in adults, with studies reporting a better performance in women than in men (Moering et al, 2004;Strickland, D'Elia, James, & Stein, 1997;Van der Elst et al, 2006) while others reported an inexistent effect of sex (Jensen & Rohwer, 1966;Ligon, 1932;Stroop, 1935).…”

“…Armengol, 2002;Barbarotto et al, 1998;Lee et al, 2002;Martins et al, 2005;Oliveira et al, 2016). Therefore, the results of this study are expected to contribute to the improvement of quality standards in the neuropsychological evaluation of pediatric population in these countries.…”

“…Currently, only a number of countries have generated normative studies for the Stroop Test within the pediatric population, including but not limited to Brazil (Oliveira et al, 2016), China (Lee, Yuen, & Chan, 2002), Italy (Barbarotto et al, 1998), México (Armengol, 2002), Portugal (Martins et al, 2005) and the U.S. (Moran & Yates, 2011). Regarding the availability of the Stroop Test and normative data for use with Latin American and Spanish pediatric populations, the majorities of the instruments used are adaptations of North American tests and standardized with American norms (Ferraro, 2015;Razani, Burciaga, Madore, & Wong, 2007).…”

Normative data of 300 Dutch‐speaking children on the Token Test

“…Furthermore, male hormone levels seem to be negatively correlated with linguistic measures in boys (Christiansen & Knussmann, 1987). On the other hand, Martins et al (2005) suggested that social and educational trends that affect sexual development might contribute to gender differences in cognitive performance concerned with visuo-spatial skills, memory, executive functions, and also language (Halpern, 2000). Taken together, these factors might explain why girls generally outperform boys in several measures of language.…”