PERFORMANCE ON 2 ATTENTION TASKS AS A FUNCTION OF SEX AND COMPETITION

Effects of sex and competition on receptive attention and Stroop task performance of 59 college students were investigated. 33 participants in a competitive condition were informed that performance would be ran ked by sex; 36 in a noncompetitive condition were given no information regarding competition. Consistent with previous research, no signific ant main effects or interactions were found for scores on the receptiv e attention task. Contrary to previous findings, though, the Stroop ta sk also yielded no significant main effects; however, a significant in teraction was found. Men experienced more interference in the competit ive condition, whereas women showed no significant effects of competit ion. Women did experience more interference than men in the Noncompeti tive condition. Conclusions suggest that men may be more sensitive to sex-based performance comparisons.