Women have been stereotyped as better multitaskers when compared to their male counterparts. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are differences in gender performance when performing cognitive co...Women have been stereotyped as better multitaskers when compared to their male counterparts. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are differences in gender performance when performing cognitive combined tasks. Twenty-four graduate students (twelve females and twelve males) volunteered to participate in the study. The task requires participants to indicate when they perceive a change in the intensity of an auditory signal while simultaneously solving algebraic problems. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) results reveal no significant differences between genders when performing the combined tasks (p = 0.1831 and 2 = 0.7891) although the average number of false alarms made during the combined tasks by males is nearly 11% higher than the average number of false alarms made by females. However, (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) ANOVA results for the combined tasks show that males outperform females on the computational task while listening for changes in the auditory signal F(1, 22) - 5.09, p 〈 0.03, but there are no significant differences in their ability to detect noise intensity variation or in the number of false alarms made while multitasking. For the single task analysis the ANOVAs indicate no significant differences in signal detection task performance, computational task performance, or the number of false alarms made by males and females.展开更多
文摘Women have been stereotyped as better multitaskers when compared to their male counterparts. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are differences in gender performance when performing cognitive combined tasks. Twenty-four graduate students (twelve females and twelve males) volunteered to participate in the study. The task requires participants to indicate when they perceive a change in the intensity of an auditory signal while simultaneously solving algebraic problems. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) results reveal no significant differences between genders when performing the combined tasks (p = 0.1831 and 2 = 0.7891) although the average number of false alarms made during the combined tasks by males is nearly 11% higher than the average number of false alarms made by females. However, (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) ANOVA results for the combined tasks show that males outperform females on the computational task while listening for changes in the auditory signal F(1, 22) - 5.09, p 〈 0.03, but there are no significant differences in their ability to detect noise intensity variation or in the number of false alarms made while multitasking. For the single task analysis the ANOVAs indicate no significant differences in signal detection task performance, computational task performance, or the number of false alarms made by males and females.