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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognition
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1402645

Gender Differences in Operational and Cognitive Abilities

Provisionally accepted
Emil Lager Emil Lager 1,2*Kimmo Sorjonen Kimmo Sorjonen 1,2Marika Melin Marika Melin 1,2
  • 1 Karolinska Institutet (KI), Solna, Sweden
  • 2 Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Gender differences in cognitive and operational abilities have been identified. Yet, their interrelationship remains underexplored. This prevents tailored evidence-based selection, allowing discrimination to persist. Method: Data from a test battery of operational and cognitive tests was analyzed. In total 2743 aviation pilot candidates' test scores were analyzed. Results: Males had a significantly higher score on mental spatial ability, memory retention, abstract problem solving, multitasking ability (MU), and manual spatial ability (MSA); and females on perceptual speed. Correlations between MU and MSA (difference = 0.269 (95% CI: 0.114; 0.405)) and between MSA and perceptual speed (difference = 0.186 (95% CI: 0.027; 0.332)) were significantly stronger among female applicants. A high MSA score was more predictive of a high score on MU, Perceptual speed, and Memory for female compared with male applicants (p < 0.002 for the MSA score × sex interaction effect in all three cases). Discussion: Interpretation of test scores in between genders potentially may need to look different for final selection decisions for operational professions, as female test profiles were shown to exhibit greater homogeneity.

    Keywords: cognitive abilities, gender differences, Aviation, multitasking, Spatial Ability

    Received: 19 Mar 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lager, Sorjonen and Melin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Emil Lager, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Solna, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.