- There was no difference in the gender’s self assessed probability of success 
- Perhaps females less useful navigation styles and experiences of failure lead to worse performance than males 
- Right off the bat, males were more exploratory and active 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- this study sought to analyze differences in performance on a computer task for males and females
- explored motivation as a way to explain the differences they found

Gender Differences in Computer performance & motivation

Vollmeyer, R., & Imhof, M. (2007). Are there gender differences in computer performance? If so, can motivation explain them?. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 21(3/4), 251-261.

- In the 1990s, study reported that females used the computer less frequently and were more apprehensive to do so-has been reaffirmed by more recent studies as well 
- Seems as though males and females spend the same amount of time on computers at work but at home, males use it more in their free time 
- Females are less certain of their computer abilities than males 
- cognitive-motivational process model
- mediating variables= functional state and learning strategies

Gender Differences in Computer performance & motivation background info

- 1-”male students have a more positive initial motivation”
- 2-”male students are expected to experience more flow...they should display a more effective navigation style”
- 3-”male students solve more statistical problems with the SPSS computer program than female students”
- 4-”we assume that when male students have a more positive initial motivation they invest a more effective navigation style right from the beginning and report more flow-experience during learning. As a consequence, we expect that they outperform female students”


Gender Differences in Computer performance & motivation background hypotheses

- 40 students from the Econ department 
- Participants were told they had 30 minutes to complete 4 tasks that increased with difficulty 
- Researchers stopped them every 10 minutes to measure their flow
- Measured their initial motivation and statistical background 
- Measured initial motivation through the Questionnaire of Current Motivation-measuring motivation on the participant’s probability of success, anxiety, interest, and challenge 
- To measure flow, have to stop every 10 minutes to answer a flow scale-10 questions with a seven point scale 
- To measure navigation style, they recorded their sessions and how long it took them to complete the tasks-had 12 different categories of behaviors 
- Used SPSS as the test software because the students did not already know how to use it


Gender Differences in Computer performance & motivation background methods

- On average, males ended up finishing the tasks earlier than females 
- More male than females completed all of the tasks 
- Hypothesis 1 was rejected-male students did not necessarily have a more positive initial motivation and no difference in statistics background 
- Males reported having more flow experiences than females
- In analyzing navigation style, males clicked around a lot more and made a lot of errors before coming to their answer 
- Hypothesis 2-fail to reject-male students were more successful at using the most important features in the menu 
- Males reached on average 11/18 points, while females reached on average, 6/18 points 
- Through a path model, males start out using a more effective navigation style, leading them to find the required menu items faster and understand how to do the statistical problems 


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