Menstrual Cycle Influences on Perceptual Disembedding Ability

Abstract

Volunteer female psychology undergraduates (n = 44) and nursing students (n = 49) were asked to state the stage of their menstrual cycle immediately after completion of the Group Embedded Figures Test of perceptual disembedding. Psychology students tested during the equivalent of days 11–17 of an average 28-day cycle made more errors than those tested near the beginning or end. This relation did not hold for student nurses, whether on oral contraceptives or not. Results appear unexplained by estrogen-induced impairments of inhibition-based perceptual disembedding ability. Beliefs about menstrual-cycle effects may have increased motivation from a perceived disadvantage during menstrual and premenstrual phases and led to better performance of psychology students in these phases.