50-year-old women beat men in memory tests

At the age of 50, women's memory outperforms their male counterparts, research from the Institute of Education at the University of London suggests.

A study involving more than 9,600 middle-aged men and women in England, Scotland and Wales found women outscored men in two verbal memory tests.

Report authors Matthew Brown and Brian Dodgeon explained: "Men performed significantly more poorly in the verbal memory tests: particularly on the delayed memory test.

"Previous research has produced similar results but this is the first time that such a large number of middle-aged men and women of the same age have taken memory tests of this kind in the UK."

Participants in the first test listened to 10 common words being read out and were then given two minutes to recall as many as possible.

The second test required them to list the same 10 words about five minutes later.

Women scored almost 5 per cent more than men, on average, in the first test and nearly 8 per cent more in the second.

They were also quicker in a third test requiring them to cross out as many "Ps" and "Ws" as possible in a page filled with rows of random letters, but women also made more mistakes than men.

In a fourth test, which involved naming as many animals as they could in a minute, men and women had identical scores. Each could name 22 animals, on average.

Those tested were all members of the National Child Development Study who have been tracked by researchers since their birth in 1958.

As they were also tested aged 16, the latest tests will help researchers estimate the impact that exercise, diet, smoking, alcohol and depression have had on their mental abilities.