Cognitive Psychology Assignment - Gender Differences in Sustained Attentional Control

Relate to Gender Inequality across Countries

Aditi Unmesh Vasava (100816477)

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Ontario Tech University

Cognitive Psychology

Dr. Tanya Karam Zanders

November 19, 2022

Countries

The study under review is titled Gender disparities in sustained attentional control relate

to gender inequity across countries (Riley et al., 2016). Using a large sample, this study looked

into how gender disparities in sustained attentional control differ. It then looked into

international sociocultural variations to identify plausible sociocultural causes of the

discrepancies. The authors found a total research gap in papers that took sociocultural aspects

into account and contradictions in earlier studies, particularly those that focused on gender

differences in sustained attentional control. These discrepancies and gaps serve as illustrative

examples of the significance of the current paper, which is relevant to locate the material that

may be of general public interest and bringing new knowledge to the field of study.

The current study hypothesized that gender disparities in a sustained attentional control

task would be influenced by sociocultural factors in the various countries used.

Descriptions of study methodology

Twenty-one thousand seven hundred eighty-one individuals took part in the study, with

ages ranging from 10 to 70. Through TestMyBrain.org, a well-known website for cognitive

testing sustained attentional control was examined using a gradual onset continuous performance

task (gradCPT). The subjects' age, gender, ethnicity, and test site were all recorded. The

gradCPT that was used displayed a series of gray-scale images that changed progressively to the

next image every 800 milliseconds. 90% of the photographs were of non-target cities, while 10%

of the images were of target mountain scenes [independent variable]. The participants had to

push a key when a city scene was displayed and refrain from hitting the key when a mountain
scene was displayed (basically, this was a go/no-go job). The dependent variables that were

evaluated included reaction time, reaction time variability, omission errors, and commission

mistakes. Participants completed three 30-second practice sessions, and those whose

performance varied by more than three standard deviations across all four dependent variables or

who had a period of no reaction lasting more than 30 seconds were then eliminated from the

analysis.

The authors added an extra four dependent variables to highlight each nation's

sociocultural conditions after considering the sample's general gender differences: women in the

labour force, poverty, the Human Development Index (HDI), and the Social Institutions and

Gender Index (SIGI). The task factors were compared to these indices in order to ascertain

whether or not these sociocultural settings would have an impact on gender differences.

Key Findings

The gradCPT task's initial findings revealed a general gender effect across all four

gradCPT-dependent variables, even when age was factored into the model. Within each of the

individual dependent variables, significant gender disparities were also discovered (that is,

reaction time, reaction time variability, commission errors, and omission errors). In the

commission error model, gender inequalities persisted even after accounting for omission

mistakes, indicating that these errors do not significantly affect one another's performance. These

combined findings also revealed that while men commit more commission errors, women

commit more omission errors and have a broader range in their reaction times. This was in line

with earlier research on the disparities between the sexes in sustained attentional control tasks.

The researchers next determined sociocultural variations within the sample after verifying gender

disparities. With the exception of poverty, each sociocultural variable showed a strong
correlation with gradCPT performance. Reaction times, greater variability, more omission errors,

and somewhat fewer commission errors were related to lower levels of human development and

gender equality. The most intriguing finding was that sociocultural circumstances did not appear

to have the same impact on men and women to the same extent. Men committed more

commission errors, and women committed more omission errors when there was less gender

equality. Men and women performed more in line with one another as gender equality rose. It

was also discovered that women's performance variance primarily caused these gender

disparities between countries.

Implications to Everyday Life and Extrapolation of Future Research Questions

The authors' research supports gender differences in sustained attentional control, mainly

the result that men commit more commission errors and women commit more omission errors.

The difference in mistake rates between men and women varied significantly among countries

and was closely related to indicators of both gender equality and human development.

Significantly, women's performance varied widely, contributing to these differences. These

results suggest that deteriorating sociocultural circumstances, particularly for women, are

associated with alterations in sustained attentional control.

Numerous reasons, such as variations in attentional or strategic processes, may contribute

to the partial explanation of these discrepancies. According to prior studies, men tend to be more

impulsive, whereas women are more risk-averse. Whatever the precise cause, this study shows

the significant impact of sociocultural factors on fundamental cognitive capacities. It adds to the

mounting evidence that gender differences in cognition are not innate. The study by Mishra et al.

(2019) on gender differences in facial recognition and their correlation with sociocultural factors

supports this hypothesis. Researchers found that celebrity face identification was higher among
participants for their own gender in nations with lower gender equality than it was in nations

with higher gender equality. India, a nation renowned for its significant gender inequality and

poor sociocultural conditions, was the site of a second supporting inquiry. According to Jain et

al. (2022), there is a sizable difference between the cognitive capacity of men and women. These

three studies—all based on different cognitive abilities—support the notion that sociocultural

influences, particularly those that affect women rather than biological makeup, are the primary

cause of gender disparities in cognition. A critical inference from this is the motivation for

promoting gender equality and how such conditions might enhance specific components of

sustained attention and lessen gender inequalities in cognition, as has been observed to happen in

nations with low gender disparity. Future studies are recommended to advance this line of

thinking and look at additional gender differences in cognition that sociocultural factors might

influence.
 References

Jain, U., Angrisani, M., Langa, K. M., Sekher, T. V., & Lee, J. (2022). How much of the

female disadvantage in late-life cognition in India can be explained by education

and gender inequality. Scientific Reports, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-

022-09641-8

Mishra, M. V., Likitlersuang, J., B Wilmer, J., Cohan, S., Germine, L., & DeGutis, J. M.

(2019). Gender differences in familiar face recognition and the influence of

sociocultural gender inequality. Scientific Reports, 9(1).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54074-5

Riley, E., Okabe, H., Germine, L., Wilmer, J., Esterman, M., & DeGutis, J. (2016).

Gender differences in sustained attentional control relate to gender inequality

across countries. PLoS One, 11.