Multitasking refers to the performance of a variety of tasks at one time. It has been defined by many researchers and psychologists. For instance according to Pashler (1994), multi-tasking can be defined as the ability to carry out operations simultaneously. Pashler’s (1994) study concludes that the ability to execute cognitive operations simultaneously is limited. On the other hand Dux et al. (2006) used brain scanners and identified that training can improve the speed of information processing, however Dux et al. (2006) agrees on the fact that tasks processing is not done simultaneously but can be carried out in rapid succession which may enable multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is becoming increasingly common and important in the modern work environment. However its productivity stays underexplored. Additionally, there is a stereotype that women are able to carry out multi-tasking in a better way than men. This paper will explore the impact of gender differences on multi-tasking.
Multi-tasking has been considered as a broad concept in the field of psychology and has been developed over years. The research carried out by Salvucci and Taatgen (2010) suggested that it is highly important in understanding the risk of multi-tasking in practical real life situations for example using mobile phone while driving. According to Stoet et al. (2013), there are two types of multi tasking abilities. Firstly, multi-tasking is a skill which involves the ability to deal with several tasks requirements without needing to carry them out simultaneously. An example might include that of an administrator who has the skill to answer phone calls, mail, do all the paper work but usually does not carry out all of the tasks simultaneously. Another type of multi-tasking involves processing information or carrying out tasks simultaneously. A person finds it simple to carry out tasks individually and faces no problems. However difficulty arises when the tasks have to be carried out simultaneously due to which humans usually try to avoid such situations in practical life. The ability to deal with this difficulty varies in gender. There have been various researches investigating the impact of gender differences on multi-tasking (Stoet et al., 2013).
Despite of increasing importance of multitasking, gender differences and its impact on multitasking have received less attention. However there are a few books and media reports which suggest that women are able to perform tasks simultaneously in a more effective way as they remained involved in the house hold chores. According to Sayer (2007), to carry out house hold tasks, women are usually carrying out several tasks at one time; hence they have the ability to process information quickly and carry out tasks simultaneously. Ren, Zhou and Fu (2009) also agrees on the fact that women are far better than men at multi-tasking. An extrapolation of hunter gatherer hypothesis was carried out by Ren, Zhou and Fu (2009) to predict the skills of men and women at multi-tasking. Their hypothesis states about the cognitive adaption of women and men towards division of labour between genders for example women optimizes for gathering whereas men for hunting. Ren, Zhou and Fu (1009) predicted that women gathering require to be combined with the looking after family and children which needs more of multi-tasking than focusing on one thing. The study supported the hypothesis that women perform better in multitasking. However it is said that there has been no scientific evidence gathered to prove that women are better in multitasking than men. For instance Hambrick et al. (2010) reviewed literature and concluded that none of the scientific evidence was found to support the view that women can carry out tasks simultaneously more easily than men.
It is acceptable to make an assumption that gender related and individual differences within multitasking originate from two sources at least. Firstly, the performance of multi tasks is a reflection of domain specific differences in the ability of an individual to perform a component task separately in isolation (Wickens, 2008). Now a highly trained pilot will be a very trained and skillful multitasker as the job requires that level of expertise, which is obtained from training as well as ample amount of experience. If this perspective is taken then it can be said that women are better multitaskers than men and the gender differences will be prominent in task-specific experience for example taking care of children (Loukopoulos, Dismukes and Barshi, 2009). The second source is the variability which reflects individual differences. Individual differences might exist between people, which might affect their ability to carry out and coordinate tasks. From this view, the reasons behind gender related differences in multitasking must not be restricted to structural biases within the working environment instead it must consider differences in the real cognitive capacity of executing multiple tasks (Mantyla, 2009).
Spatial ability refers to the capacity of an individual to understand and solve problems and is affected by gender differences. Studies suggest that spatial ability is contributed to the differences in gender. Mantyla (2009) made efforts to explore the view that multitasking is based on two cognitive functions. The first function is to remember the goals and update them. This is known as the executive function. The second is the ability to spatially reason. According to Mantyla (2009), differences individual or gender based in these two skills will have an impact on how well multitasking is carried out. The study conducted by Mantyla (2009), involved a detailed examination of gender related differences in multitasking. The study involved the use of component tasks which were gender fair and simple but the combination of those requires high degree of coordination. The findings suggested that monitoring of multitasking involves spatiotemporal task coordination and differences in gender in executing tasks simultaneously demonstrate differences in spatial ability. According to the research carried out by Mantyla (2009), men performed better while multitasking than women. Men also performed well at the mental rotation task. The study suggested that this cognitive gender difference substantially explained the superiority of men in multitasking. However, Mantyla (2009) also identified that through the women menstrual cycle, the individual differences in both multitasking and spatial ability varies. This means that men were superior to women in multitasking when women were in the latter (luteal) phase of their menstrual cycle. The study also identified that differences in gender vanishes when women enters into menstrual phase (Mantyla, 2009).
Men and women tend to reflect different attitudes and behaviors and deal with situations in different ways which affect their ability to manage tasks simultaneously. According to Morgan (2012), men are slow in executing tasks and less organized as compared to women. UK Psychologists states that men are less able to process information quickly and are not able to switch between tasks rapidly. Stoet et al. (2013) state that both genders struggle and work hard to cope with the priorities however men tend to suffer more on an average. An experiment in China was carried out which concluded that women outperformed men while another experiment was carried out in Sweden and identified that men were better than women when performing tasks simultaneously. The study further identified that if spatial tasks are involved that men performed far better than women (Morgan, 2013). Stoet et al (2013), to explore it further compared the performance of men and women at multitasking. They compared 120 men and 120 women and conducted a computer test which involved exchanging between tasks. Both men and women performed equally when the tasks were carried out one after the other. However gender difference was clearly prominent when the tasks were mixed up. The performance of both men and women slowed down and they made more errors and mistakes as the exchange of tasks became more rapid. However the results showed that the performance of men was substantially slowed down and they took 77% longer than before whereas the performance of women did not slowed down at the same rate. Women took 69% longer than before to execute the tasks. Stoet et al. (2013) states that the difference may not be very significant between men and women; however it will be significant over a working day or when the entire working week is considered.
On the other hand Havel (2004) observed the abilities of multitasking of 30 females and 30 males using a series of spatial and verbal tests. The test involved all the participants to carefully listen to a story and count the number of times a particular keyword occurred. Two stories were used in the study. One of the stories carried about 437 words and the keyword was mentioned 16 times. During the study, the spatial and verbal abilities of participants were observed and evaluated by making them complete mazes and word searches while listening for the keyword. The study identified no gender differences however it concluded that male participants over spatial tasks scored at a higher level while female scored at a higher level on the verbal part of the study (Havel, 2004).
Overall it can be said that there has been not much research in the area of gender differences when carrying out tasks simultaneously. The researches that have been carried out gives mix view about the impact of gender differences on the ability of carrying out tasks simultaneously. Some researchers and tests have identified that women are superior to men when it comes to multitasking while other researchers have identified the superiority of men in carrying out tasks simultaneously. Some researchers have recognized gender differences in multitasking while others have identified no gender differences.
References
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