Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Sep;46(5):804-808.
doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.04.015.

I only have eyes for you: Ovulation redirects attention (but not memory) to attractive men

Uriah S Anderson  1 , Elaine F Perea, D Vaughn Becker, Joshua M Ackerman, Jenessa R Shapiro, Steven L Neuberg, Douglas T Kenrick
Affiliations

I only have eyes for you: Ovulation redirects attention (but not memory) to attractive men

Uriah S Anderson et al. J Exp Soc Psychol. 2010 Sep.

Abstract

A number of studies have found a disjunction between women's attention to, and memory for, handsome men. Although women pay initial attention to handsome men, they do not remember those men later. The present study examines how ovulation might differentially affect these attentional and memory processes. We found that women near ovulation increased their visual attention to attractive men. However, this increased visual attention did not translate into better memory. Discussion focuses on possible explanations, in the context of an emerging body of findings on disjunctions between attention to, and memory for, other people.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean time spent looking at each face type. Error bars represent 95% CI. The apparent main effect of fertility status is not statistically significant.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Memory accuracy for each face type. Error bars represent 95% CI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ackerman JM, Becker DV, Mortensen CR, Sasaki T, Neuberg SL, Kenrick DT. A pox on the mind: Disjunction of attention and memory in the processing of physical disfigurement. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2009;45:478–485. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker DV, Anderson US, Neuberg SL, Maner JK, Shapiro JR, Ackerman JM, et al. More memory bang for the attentional buck: Self-protection goals enhance encoding efficiency for potentially threatening males. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2010;1:182–189. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker DV, Kenrick DT, Guerin S, Maner JK. Concentrating on beauty: Sexual selection and sociospatial memory. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin. 2005;31:1643–1652. - PubMed
    1. Becker DV, Kenrick DT, Neuberg SL, Blackwell KC, Smith DM. The confounded nature of angry men and happy women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2007;92:179–190. - PubMed
    1. Buss DM, Schmitt DP. Sexual strategies theory: A contextual evolutionary analysis of human mating. Psychological Review. 1993;100:204–232. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources