Gender Effects on Reaction Time Variability and Trial-to-Trial Performance: Reply to Deary and Der (2005)

Abstract

Deary and Der (2005) Deary, I. J. and Der, G. 2005. Reaction time, age, and cognitive ability: Longitudinal findings from age 16 to 63 years in representative population samples. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 12: 187–215. [CSA][Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] reported significant gender effects on intraindividual variability in choice reaction time (CRT), and suggested several potential causes. In their procedure it was not possible to examine RTs on a trial-to-trial basis. We therefore investigate an additional possible cause: that men and women differ in their rate of performance improvement across trials, creating an apparent difference in variability. Using data from a large online CRT study, we replicate the finding that women are more variable in RT than men. However, we also demonstrate an interaction between gender and trial number for RT: women were initially slower than men, but became faster than men across a block. When the first two trials of the block are excluded, the gender effects on RT variability disappear.

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