Sex Differences and Effects of Irrelevant Auditory Stimulation on Performance of a Visual Vigilance Task

Abstract

80 Ss participated in a visual vigilance task under one of 4 background-noise conditions. Results indicated that (a) female Ss showed a greater time-related performance decrement in correct detections than males in the regular-intermittent background condition, (b) RTs increased with time, (c) males responded more rapidly than females, (d) intermittent noise attenuated time-related changes in incorrect detections, (e) males made more incorrect detections than females in the intermittent background conditions but not in the constant-background conditions, and (f) there was a sex × trial block interaction in the constant noise condition. Several correlations between and within response measures were reported.