DOI:10.6129/CJP.202203_64(1).0004
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2022, Vol.64, No.1, 77-90
Adaptive Memory: Different Effects of Reproductive Processing on Male and Female Memory
Yu Rui（Faculty of Education, Yunnan Normal University；School of Humanities and Management, Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine）；Tao Yun（Faculty of Education, Yunnan Normal University）
Abstract
As one of the major pressures in human evolution, reproduction may shape the characteristics of human memory. Men and women develop different mate preferences in reproductive tasks, which have different effects on their memory. In this study, face pictures and personality trait words were used as experimental materials to explore the different effect of reproductive processing on male and female memory.
The study set two matching processing conditions to explore whether reproductive processing could bring better memory results to the subjects. One was a blind date condition, representing reproductive processing, and the other was a recruitment condition, representing non-reproductive processing. In experiment 1, the face pictures were used as the experimental material. The result shows that male subjects have better recognition of the faces under the reproductive condition. While, there is no difference in female memory of the faces under reproductive and non- reproductive conditions. In experiment 2, the words representing personality traits were used as experimental materials. The result shows that female participants have better memory of trait words under the reproductive condition, while there is no difference in male memory of trait words between reproductive and non-reproductive conditions.
In conclusion, this study finds that men have better memory of female faces under reproductive conditions, while women have more obvious memory advantages for male trait words under reproductive conditions compared to non- reproductive conditions. These results prove that reproductive processing can bring memory advantages, but also show that there may be differences between the two sexes in memory mechanisms due to different preferences for mate selection.
Keywords: adaptive memory, reproductive processing, mate preferences, sex difference
