Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
Pregnant women consistently report that their memory and attention abilities become worse during pregnancy. However, their perception of changes is not well supported by comparisons of performance between pregnant and non-pregnant women on laboratory cognitive tasks. The aim of this project was to investigate two possible reasons for this discrepancy. The first possibility is that there are real changes but these are so mild that they are usually only noticeable in complex everyday situations and are rarely demonstrable in the simple tasks typically used to examine the effects of pregnancy on cognition. The second possibility is that there are no actual changes and the perception of worsening ability arises from a negative stereotype which makes pregnant women more aware of the kinds of cognitive slips everyone makes which are then attributed to pregnancy. The project comprised three studies. The possibility that there are real but subtle changes in cognition was examined in Study 1 by comparing the performance of 50 first-time pregnant women in middle and late pregnancy and 25 non-pregnant, childless women on a range of sensitive cognitive tests using familiar everyday scenarios, and in Study 3 by comparing the performance of 13 pregnant women with that of 17 non-pregnant, childless women on two cognitively complex driving simulation tasks. All women also provided self-ratings of cognitive changes. Study 2 investigated the existence of a social stereotype: 99 female and 55 male participants with immediate experience of pregnancy (pregnant women and their partners), and 100 female and 100 male participants with little experience of pregnancy rated the likelihood of cognitive and other changes women may experience during pregnancy.
Main Topics:
The dataset consists of the data from all three studies within the project. For Study 1, 25 women in their second trimester of pregnancy, 25 women in their third trimester of pregnancy, and 25 non-pregnant, childless women provided self-ratings for 15 cognitive and 6 emotional changes that may accompany pregnancy. Pregnant women rated changes since becoming pregnant, non-pregnant women made comparisons with one year ago. They also indicated which of a number of possible reasons might account for the changes, noted any other changes they had experienced, and gave personal examples. In addition, all women provided data from 13 subtasks from four published tests covering a range of memory and attention functions: the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test, Speed and Capacity of Language-Processing Test, Behavioural Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome and the Test of Everyday Attention (references given below). For Study 2, 99 female and 55 male participants with immediate experience of pregnancy (pregnant women and their partners), and 100 female and 100 male participants with little experience of pregnancy provided the same ratings as in Study 1, but this time the ratings referred to their perception of changes experienced by pregnant women in general. The pregnant women and their partners also provided ratings which related to the pregnant participant rather than pregnant women in general. For Study 3, 13 pregnant and 17 non-pregnant, childless women who provided information relating to their driving experience, and measures from a braking task and a junction task in a driving simulator. They also provided the same self-ratings as participants in Study 1. Standard Measures: The ratings were made on seven-point Likert scales using a rating scale devised specifically for the study. The cognitive tasks in Study 1 were taken from four published tests:Wilson, B., Cockburn, J. and Baddeley, A. (1991) The Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test, 2nd edition, Bury St. Edmunds: Thames Valley Test CompanyBaddeley, A., Emslie, H. and Nimmo-Smith, I. (1992) The Speed and Capacity of Language-Processing Test, Bury St. Edmunds: Thames Valley Test CompanyWilson, B.A., Alderman, N., Burgess, P.W., Emslie, H. and Evans, J. (1996) Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome, Bury St. Edmunds: Thames Valley Test CompanyRobertson, I.H., Ward, T., Ridgeway, V. and Nimmo Smith, I. (1994) The Test of Everyday Attention, Bury St. Edmunds: Thames Valley Test Company
Volunteer sample
Face-to-face interview
Telephone interview
Psychological measurements
