Gender Differences in Trail Making Test Performance in a Nonclinical Sample of Adults

Abstract

Trail making test (TMT) is one of the neuropsychological task to evaluate mental flexibility, visual search, motor speed and executive functions in neurological patients. Attention and speed are two mental functions necessary to complete the task in a short time with the least of errors. It is suggested that age and education have respectively positive and negative relationships with the time of performance of the task by neuropsychological patients. In this study it is hypothesized that (a) there is a positive relationship between education and motor speed in normal adults (b) there is a negative relationship can be seen between age and motor speed in normal adults and (c) normal men and women have not different motor speed in part A and part B of TMT. In order to do this study, 285 normal adults (men=112) were selected and their motor speed and errors were measured in part A and B. The results showed that (a) there was a negative, but not statistically significant, relationship between education and motor speed in groups, (b) there was a negative relationship between age and motor speed in part B only in male group, and (c) there was no differences between men and women in errors of part A and B, and there was no differences between them in motor speed in part A, but there was a significant difference in time of performance of part B. The results are discussed based on evidences of harder tasks in part B of TMT and gender differences in mental functions.