Study, 1994
Does PMS affect how fast and accurately women do attention tasks?
Women responded more slowly to easier attention tasks before menstruation, but accuracy wasn't affected. After the task, women felt lower in energy and mood before menstruation.
What they did
28 women completed two demanding attention tasks (detecting visual targets) during premenstrual and non-menstrual phases of their cycle. They rated their mood before and after each task.
What they found
Response time was slower before menstruation on the easier of the two tasks, but not on the harder task. Accuracy and detection ability did not differ by cycle phase. Before the tasks, mood was similar in both phases. After the tasks, women reported lower energy and less pleasant mood before menstruation. The effect on response time was stronger in women not using birth control.
What it means for you
Before menstruation, women might work more slowly on routine tasks and feel lower in energy, especially if not taking birth control. However, the response time difference was noted to have little practical significance. The study was small with no control group for comparison, so findings need confirmation.
28
women studied
2
attention tasks completed
About the study
- Original title
- The expression of the 'pre-menstrual syndrome' in measures of mood and sustained attention
- Authors
- Matthews G, Ryan H
- Journal
- Ergonomics
- Year
- 1994
- Study design
- Study
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1080/00140139408964918
Topics
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