Women aren't better at multitasking than men

A new study now has quashed the theory that women are better at multitasking.

Researchers from the University of Bergen in Norway have revealed there's hardly any difference between the capabilities of both sexes.

According to researchers, they developed a computerised task — The Meeting Preparation Task (CMPT) — that was designed to resemble everyday life activities and, at the same time, that was grounded in the most comprehensive theoretical model of multitasking activities.

The post, published in Harvard Business Review, discussed how confusion over which sex can multitask more effectively is often the result of researchers using different definitions of the term "multitasking".

University College London professor, Paul Burgess, defined the two types as concurrent, which means doing two or more activities at once, and serial, where a person changes between tasks separately.

The paper went onto explain the latter definition is what people do most often.

The researchers used 66 women and 82 men aged 18-60, and placed participants in a three-room space, where they were required to prepare for a meeting while at the same time dealing with issues such as missing chairs and incoming phone calls.

They then compared the performance of both groups on factors including whether the task was completed accurately, how long it took to complete and how participants managed the distracting events.

"We found no differences between men and women in terms of serial multitasking abilities," they wrote.