Sex Differences in Mental Workload during Performance of Mental Tasks

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Abstract
In one of two experiments which were previously carried out in male students, 24 female students performed four mental tasks (transcribing, cancelling, adding, and calculating) at maximum effort for 5 min each. On the basis of an objective mental workload index, i.e., occipital midline beta-2 (Oz.beta.2) amplitude, it was shown that all tasks caused a higher mental workload in females than males, though there were no sex differences in Oz.beta.2 amplitude at rest. On a subjective mental workload index, i.e., subjective rating of task difficulty (SRTD), however, it was suggested that females had a tendency to perceive a lower mental workload in all tasks than males. In another experiment, where a paced caculating task was imposed on another 24 female students at five grades of task load for 5 min each, the critical values for excessive workload were estimated to be about 7.0 .mu.V (the difference between the levels at work and at rest) for Oz.beta.2 amplitude and 3.5 for SRTD. Hence, it was evaluated that none of the above four tasks constituted an objectively excessive workload in females, whereas all of them were excessive in males. Subjectively, two tasks that were seen as an excessive workload in females were not in males.