The Influence of Gender on Human’s Cognitive Ability and the Correlation Research of Different Cognitive Dimensions

Human’s ability and characteristic are important content in ergonomics research. Only when machine and environment adapt to person’s ability and characteristic, can human work safely, healthily, comfortably and efficiently. Four cognitive characteristic indexes were studied in this experiment which they are: visual response speed, attention span, spatial location memory span and short-time memory span. The aim was to study the influence of gender on four indicators and the correlation between them. Thirty-one postgraduates of Beihang University took part in the experiment. The subjects included 17 female and 14 male who aged from 22 to 25 years old, with an average age of 23. They were healthy and their vision or corrected vision were 1.5 or above. The results showed that there were no significant differences in the reaction time, attention span, short term memory span and spatial location memory span between males and females (P > 0.05). According to the comparison of the comprehensive value of cognitive ability, the comprehensive value of comprehensive ability of girls and boys was about 0.49 and 0.48 respectively, and the cognitive ability of girls was slightly higher than boys. The results of independent T-test showed that the P > 0.05, so there was no significant difference in cognitive ability between boys and girls. In terms of the correlation of four indicators in different cognitive dimensions, the Pearson correlation coefficient of the short-time memory span value and the attention span value was 0.445, and the significance level was 0.05. There was a certain correlation between the two indicators, while there was no obvious correlation among other indicators. This research can provide reference for information product design and some job recruitment.