Survey study, 2002
Do women think and solve math problems differently depending on their menstrual cycle phase?
Overall performance on math tasks did not clearly differ between menstrual cycle phases. However, how much individual women's performance varied from day to day did change with the cycle phase, and this pattern was different for each woman.
What they did
Women completed a 20-minute mental arithmetic task on multiple days across their menstrual cycle. Researchers compared their performance at different cycle phases.
What they found
There was no clear difference in math task performance between menstrual cycle phases. However, when researchers looked at how much each woman's performance varied between attempts, they found that this variation did change with cycle phase. Some women showed small variations across all phases, while others showed different amounts of variation at each phase. The phase that showed the most variation was different for different women.
What it means for you
Menstrual cycle phase does not appear to affect how well women can do mental math. However, how stable each woman's performance is might be affected by the cycle, and this effect differs between women. This was a single task under laboratory conditions, which may not reflect thinking in daily life.
20
minute task duration
3
menstrual cycle phases examined
2
groups of subjects based on performance variation pattern
About the study
- Original title
- Menstrual cycle effects on performance of mental arithmetic task
- Authors
- Kasamatsu K, Suzuki S, Anse M et al.
- Journal
- Journal of physiological anthropology and applied human science
- Year
- 2002
- Study design
- Survey study
- What was tested
- Mental arithmetic task.
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.2114/jpa.21.285
Topics
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