Sex differences in inspection time with age

Inspection time (IT) loads on speediness and correlates with IQ. Sex differences are well established on some tests of speediness but previous research has concluded that males and females have comparable ITs (Burns & Nettelbeck, 2005). This research has, however, predominantly focused on children, university students, and adults in middle age. We tested sex differences for IT measured in two ageing studies (N = 479; 205 females) for people aged 65–89 years. Men and women aged 65–75 had near identical mean ITs; however, sex differences favouring men (effect size d = .37) were found for participants aged 76–89 years. These differences may represent survival effects and have implications for IT as a biomarker of cognitive functioning.