There was no group difference in reaction times and accuracy between males and females (using contraception and not). However, within subject analyses revealed that regularly menstruating females performed better during menstruation compared to being in any other phase, with faster reaction times (10ms c.ca, p < .01), fewer errors (p < .05) and lower dispersion intra-individual variability (p < .05). In contrast they exhibited slower reaction times (10ms c.ca, p < .01) and poorer timing anticipation (p < .01) in the luteal phase, and more errors in the predicted ovulatory phase (p < .01). Self-reported mood, cognitive and physical symptoms were all worst during menstruation (p < .01), and a significant proportion of females felt that their symptoms were negatively affecting their cognitive performance during menstruation on testing day, which was incongruent with their actual performance.

  • streetlightsOP
    link
    12
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    Well this paper isn’t about intelligence or psychology, it’s about physiology. Reaction times and rhythmic anticipation tests are all quite well-grounded and established tests.

    Secondly, I’ve had a brief scan of that 3.5hr long video and dipped in and out of a few places are familiar to me. Straight away I notice she’s reading out the conclusions from the Anderson paper on Hunter-Gatherers that came out last year (to huge media attention) but which was not well received by anthropologists who went through the stats and found the whole thing to be a biased mess (see: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513824000497?dgcid=author). It would be unfair to blame the original authors since they were all (and I believe still are) undergraduates and so the PI should’ve been more rigorous. Then I briefly dipped into her ‘debunking’ of the selfish gene where she opens with the astonishing take that bipedism isn’t a heritable trait…this is not the voice of an expert and there are better critiques of the shortcomings in evopsych out there.