Peterson, C., Warren, K., Nguyen, D.T., & Noel, M. (2010). Infantile amnesia and gender: Does the way we measure it matter? WCPCG-2010 Proceedings, Elsevier Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences Journal.

Abstract:
Gender differences favoring females have frequently been found in investigations of infantile amnesia (IA) in adults but not in children, both when individuals are asked for their earliest memory and when memory fluency tasks are used (time-limited recall of multiple early memories). However, adults are typically assessed in groups in a paper-and-pencil format whereas children are individually and orally interviewed. The present study investigated whether this difference in methodology mattered. University students were given IA tasks in one of these two ways, and gender differences were only found for the group/written task format. Gender differences in motivation may be important.