“…The finding that women did better than men on the Digit Symbol-Coding test is consistent with previous research showing that older women tend to do better on tasks of cognitive performance than do older men (Aartsen, Martin, Zimprich, & Longitudinal Aging Study, Amsterdam, 2004) and that the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment in people aged 71-89 years appears higher in men than in women (Petersen et al, 2010). Similarly, prior studies have found that women have better verbal memory than men (Aartsen et al, 2004;Gale, Baxter, Connor, Herring, & Comer, 2007;van Hooren et al, 2007), although there may not be sex differences in visual memory (Beinhoff, Tumani, Brettschneider, Bittner, & Riepe, 2008;Gale et al, 2007). Thus, while a sex difference in memory could have potentially affected performance on the Digit Symbol-Coding subtest in this age group, females tend to perform better on measures of processing (or perceptual) speed than males (Hedges & Nowell, 1995), and this sex difference was observed in the standardization sample for Digit-Symbol Coding (Irwing, 2012).…”