Gender Differences in Criterion Task Set Performance and Subjective Ratings

Abstract

This paper summarizes gender differences in performing various elements of the Criterion Task Set. Performance data and Subjective Workload Assessment Technique ratings were analyzed for 28 men and 28 women who participated in a large-scale CTS validation study. In general, women tended to perform slightly better than men on the majority of tasks. In particular, performance by women was better on Grammatical Reasoning, Linguistic Processing, Mathematical Processing, and Memory Search. Response times on Probability Monitoring were faster for women but at the expense of a greater number of False Alarms. Men performed better only on the high level of Continuous Recall and the medium level of Unstable Tracking. Women tended to give lower subjective ratings than men to those tasks with a high memory component and gave higher ratings than men to those tasks involving input/output and spatial elements.