Men, not women, are better at multitasking - according to a new study

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sully
sully Members, Writer Posts: 4,955 ✭✭✭✭✭
Working mothers may have to juggle more tasks than their husbands, but the long-held belief that women are better than men at multitasking is a myth, according to new Swedish research.

"On the contrary, the results of our study show that men are better at multitasking than women," Timo Maentylae, a psychology professor at Stockholm University, said.

Men are sometimes better than women at handling multiple tasks simultaneously, but the performance gap is correlated to the female menstrual cycle, according to his study, to be published in US peer-reviewed journal Psychological Science.

In line with previous research, men and women with good so-called working memory were also better than others at multitasking.

However, Maentylae found that the ability to combine several different tasks at once was also linked to spatial ability which, for women, is linked to their menstrual phase.

"Previous studies have shown that women's spatial skills vary across the menstrual cycle with high capacity around menstruation and much lower around ovulation, when oestrogen levels are high," he said.

"The results showed a clear difference in multitasking between men and women in the ovulation phase, while this effect was eliminated for women in the menstrual phase."

The participants, 160 men and women between 20 and 43 years of age, were instructed to keep track of three digital "clocks", or counters, that displayed different times at different speeds.

While registering certain times displayed by the clocks, defined by a simple set of rules, they also had to watch a scrolling ticker featuring common Swedish names, pressing the mouse button when one of the names was repeated.

Differences in spatial ability and working memory were based on separate tests.

Comments

  • Gold_Certificate
    Gold_Certificate Members Posts: 13,228 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Articles stay talking about these studies without dropping the data in question.
  • KingJamal
    KingJamal Members Posts: 20,652 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2012
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    ? all these men and women studies

    ? is redundant

    ^^^^^^^

    All these studies are dumb
  • MC The Rapper
    MC The Rapper Members Posts: 8,140 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    sully wrote: »
    Working mothers may have to juggle more tasks than their husbands, but the long-held belief that women are better than men at multitasking is a myth, according to new Swedish research.

    "On the contrary, the results of our study show that men are better at multitasking than women," Timo Maentylae, a psychology professor at Stockholm University, said.

    Men are sometimes better than women at handling multiple tasks simultaneously, but the performance gap is correlated to the female menstrual cycle, according to his study, to be published in US peer-reviewed journal Psychological Science.

    In line with previous research, men and women with good so-called working memory were also better than others at multitasking.

    However, Maentylae found that the ability to combine several different tasks at once was also linked to spatial ability which, for women, is linked to their menstrual phase.

    "Previous studies have shown that women's spatial skills vary across the menstrual cycle with high capacity around menstruation and much lower around ovulation, when oestrogen levels are high," he said.

    "The results showed a clear difference in multitasking between men and women in the ovulation phase, while this effect was eliminated for women in the menstrual phase."

    The participants, 160 men and women between 20 and 43 years of age, were instructed to keep track of three digital "clocks", or counters, that displayed different times at different speeds.

    While registering certain times displayed by the clocks, defined by a simple set of rules, they also had to watch a scrolling ticker featuring common Swedish names, pressing the mouse button when one of the names was repeated.

    Differences in spatial ability and working memory were based on separate tests.

    what does that ? have to do with the normal things people do daily ? Thats a stupid ass test .
  • Melanin_Enriched
    Melanin_Enriched Members Posts: 22,868 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Not surprised. Even while i'm getting head i'm multitasking by brain storming what lie I should tell the ? so she can go away.
  • BiblicalAtheist
    BiblicalAtheist Members Posts: 15,668 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    So women don't use their head when their ? either, interesting.
  • 7figz
    7figz Members Posts: 15,294 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    So if we consider each woman a "task", then it's totally natural for ? to ? around, right ?

    Good ? .