Gender Difference in Problem Solving Based on Electroencephalogram (EEG) Signals

Abstract

Problem solving is regarded as one of the important skills required at the workplace and especially demanded by the industry. However, an individual's problem solving skills might differ from one another due to several factors, such as their genetic background and experiences. Hence, this preliminary study used electroencephalography (EEG) signal to investigate the differences in problem solving skills among the Malaysian undergraduates based on their gender differences. A total of 29 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) participated in several experiments to complete this research. Specifically, 16 female and 13 male subjects were given two main tasks: mental arithmetic task and Tower of Hanoi (TOH) task. The EEG data were analyzed using partial directed coherence (PDC) and power spectrum estimation (PSE). Based on the results, female subjects achieved only 1% higher performance in mental arithmetic task while male subjects achieved about 13% higher performance in TOH task. The differences in terms of the functional connectivity between brain regions (in PDC) as well as the power distribution of 6 EEG waveforms, i.e. delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma and high gamma bands are also highlighted and represented graphically in this paper.