Preliminary Investigation of Sex Differences in Procedural Skill Learning in Veterans with Co-Morbidities

Abstract

Sex differences in procedural skill learning have not been well characterized. Skill learning is an important area to explore in clinical settings that involve rehabilitation and deficit remediation, especially for returning Veterans that have a range of co-morbid conditions (traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression) and possess impairments in multiple domains. Sixty-five (55 males, 10 females) Veterans completed two procedural learning tasks and answered self-report questionnaires. Participants’ performance and total learning slope were analyzed to determine sex differences in learning. Our results revealed sex differences in both tasks demonstrating females tend to perform better than males with a large effect size for these mean differences. While females performed better on the procedural learning tasks compared to males, their rate of learning was equivalent. Skill learning is an important requisite for rehabilitation, as skill learning is necessary to perform daily activities in new settings. Ultimately, these results provide insight into skill learning in Veterans with a range of co-morbid conditions and provide support for further investigation of sex differences in procedural learning.