Analysing the relationship between gender and memory, and examining the effects of age on the overall memory-related functioning, are the ongoing goals of psychological research. The present study examined gender and age group differences in episodic memory with respect to the type of task. In addition, these subgroup differences were also analysed in visual working memory. A sample of 366 women and 330 men, aged between 16 and 69 years of age, participated in the current study. Results indicate that women outperformed men on auditory memory tasks, whereas male adolescents and older male adults showed higher level performances on visual episodic and visual working memory measures. However, the size of gender-linked effects varied somewhat across age groups. Furthermore, results partly support a declining performance on episodic memory and visual working memory measures with increasing age. Although age-related losses in episodic memory could not be explained by a decreasing verbal and visuospatial ability with age, women's advantage in auditory episodic memory could be explained by their advantage in verbal ability. Men's higher level visual episodic memory performance was found to result from their advantage in visuospatial ability. Finally, possible methodological, biological, and cognitive explanations for the current findings are discussed.

The present study investigated preschoolers' multiple sociomoral considerations (equality, equity, and perpetuating inequality) in a third‐party context of social inequality. Using a resource allocation task involving one wealthy and one poor character, we examined how 3–5‐year‐old children (N = 100) allocated either necessary (must‐have) or luxury (nice‐to‐have) resources. In addition, preschoolers' emotions, reasoning, and judgments were assessed. Results indicated that preschoolers distributing more resources to wealthy than poor others displayed a decision‐making pattern distinct from preschoolers allocating equally or equitably and largely matched the numeric proportions of the inequality in their allocations. In addition, preschoolers were sensitive to the differential implications of necessary and luxury resources, thereby considering others' needs in their moral decisions. Emotions were related to reasoning, but did not mediate the relationship between judgment and behavior. These findings demonstrate novel aspects of preschoolers' multifaceted moral considerations in the context of resource inequality.

The 22q11 deletion syndrome (DS) is a common genetic disorder, and a Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD) is considered as a predominant part of the phenotype. The focus of our study was to investigate the role of learning in this NLD characteristic. We compared results of children and adolescents with 22q11 DS; with non-syndromal NLD and with memory disorders on multi-trial verbal and nonverbal learning tests. Better verbal and worse nonverbal IQs were significantly discrepant for the 22q11 DS sample and for the NLD sample; the memory sample had a FS-IQ in the normal range with lower verbal IQ. General IQ was lowest for the 22q11 DS group. Similar differences in normal verbal and worse nonverbal learning resulted for the 22q11 sample and NLD-sample, while memory sample showed low performances on both tasks. Error analysis in the visual learning task indicated that lacking integration of visual-spatial information affected impaired visual memory performances in 22q11 DS and NLD. Our results reflected a common neurological basis with visual-spatial and visual memory deficits in NLD and in the 22q11 DS sample. To further investigate the issue of cross modal novelty learning deficits we recommend the use of abstract verbal learning material.

Interstitial deletion on chromosome 5q33.3q35.1 is an extremely rare chromosomal aberration for which a characteristic syndrome could not yet be delineated. In most patients with 5q deletions severe mental retardation is described. Recently, Spranger et al. (2000) described the case of a 4-year-old girl with a de novo deletion on 5q33.3q35.1 presenting only with mild psychomotor delay, minor facial anomalies, and seizures. The patient was admitted for outpatient neuropsychological assessment when she was 6.2 years old. Neurocognitive tests revealed an overall developmental delay of about 32 months and an intelligence score in the range of mild mental retardation. Her cognitive phenotype was characterized by a considerable visual-spatial deficit in the form of disorganized drawings or block designs indicating a profound lack of cohesion and overall global organization (decay of gestalt). The patient's behavioral phenotype was dominated by a distinct disinhibition syndrome demonstrating severe hyperactivity, utilization behavior, and aggressive behavior.

Ergebnisse zur Validierung der neuen Wechsler Memory Scale-IV (Deutsche Version) werden anhand von drei klinischen Stichproben (Depression, Hirnschädigung, Demenz; N = 165) vorgestellt. Für alle drei Gruppen zeigen sich signifikante Unterschiede mit hohen Effektstärken zu den parallelisierten gesunden Kontrollgruppen. Während die Patienten mit Demenz global sehr niedrige Ergebnisse zeigten, sind die Leistungen der Patienten mit Depression im unteren Durchschnittsbereich und die der Patienten mit Hirnschädigung weichen um 1,5 bis 2 Standardabweichungen nach unten ab. Damit zeigen sich erste Befunde, dass die WMS-IV nicht nur zwischen klinischen und nicht klinischen Gruppen trennen kann, sondern auch störungsbezogene Abstufungen von Gedächtnisbeeinträchtigungen darstellen kann.