Attention, Problem Solving and Decision Making: A Study on Gender Differences

Pages: 394-398
Aarsha Ajayan1 and Neeraj Panwar2 (Department of Psychology, Jain (Deemed-to-be-University), Bangalore, Karnataka1 and Department of Psychology, Christ University, Bangalore, Karnataka2)

Cognitive abilities are one of the major components after affect and behaviour which helps people to process the available information in the environment. Cognitive abilities such as attention, problem solving and decision making are used every second of the time. But by and large, young adults are expected to be high on these abilities as they have to make most significant decisions for their own life. If they are not paying attention to the environmental factors, making use of them in problem solving and making fare decisions for themselves, they prove to be incompetent in terms their cognitive abilities. Hence, the purpose of this empirical research is to understand gender differences with regard to attention, problem solving and decision-making. Between-group design has been followed wherein 87 UG students’ (age 18-23 years) participated in the research. Tools pertaining to attention, problem solving and decision making. To analyse the data descriptive statistics was run followed by t-test. The results of an independent t-test revealed no significant gender differences on any of the cognitive abilities. Further, results are clearly indicating that, if a person from either gender is given proper academic environment, scope to explore, learn and experience, gender has nothing to do with either of these cognitive abilities.