Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin NT, Hong Kong.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2021 Feb;74(2):344-362. doi: 10.1177/1747021820960707. Epub 2020 Sep 28.
There is a widespread stereotype that women are better at multitasking. Previous studies examining gender difference in multitasking used either a concurrent or sequential multitasking paradigm and offered mixed results. This study examined a possibility that men were better at concurrent multitasking while women were better at task switching. In addition, men and women were also compared in terms of multitasking experience, measured by a computer monitoring software, a self-reported Media Use Questionnaire, a laboratory task-switching paradigm, and a self-reported Multitasking Prevalence Inventory. Results showed a smaller concurrent multitasking (dual-task) cost for men than women and no gender difference in sequential multitasking (task-switching) cost. Men had more experience in multitasking involving video games while women were more experienced in multitasking involving music, instant messaging, and web surfing. The gender difference in dual-task performance, however, was not mediated by the gender differences in multitasking experience but completely explained by difference in the processing speed. The findings suggest that men have an advantage in concurrent multitasking, which may be a result of the individual differences in cognitive abilities.
有一种普遍的刻板印象认为女性更擅长多任务处理。之前研究性别差异的多任务处理的研究使用了并行或顺序多任务处理范式,得出的结果不一。本研究考察了一种可能性,即男性在并行多任务处理方面更擅长,而女性在任务切换方面更擅长。此外,还比较了男性和女性在多任务处理经验方面的差异,使用计算机监控软件、自我报告的媒体使用问卷、实验室任务切换范式和自我报告的多任务处理流行度量表进行了测量。结果显示,男性的并行多任务处理(双重任务)成本低于女性,而顺序多任务处理(任务切换)成本则没有性别差异。男性在涉及视频游戏的多任务处理方面经验更多,而女性在涉及音乐、即时通讯和网络浏览的多任务处理方面经验更多。然而,双重任务表现的性别差异不是由多任务处理经验的性别差异介导的,而是完全由处理速度的差异解释的。研究结果表明,男性在并行多任务处理方面具有优势,这可能是由于个体认知能力的差异。