Sex Differences in the Stress and Workload of Lexical Vigilance

Lexical vigilance requires sustained attention to lexical, verbal, and semantic information over a prolonged period of time. The perceived stress and workload that typically accompany the performance of these tasks remains relatively unknown. Thus, in the present study 213 observers were assigned to either a standard lexical vigilance task or a ‘lure’ vigilance task, which required additional decision-making criteria. The results were analyzed for sex differences between the conditions and across multiple measures of perceived stress and workload. These analyses indicated that women and men perceive the stress and workload associated with lexical vigilance tasks differently. More specifically, women reported greater post-task distress and more temporal demand associated with the task than men. Interestingly, men reported the task being more physically demanding than women. The implications of these results are discussed further.