The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.

    Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

    The findings have implications for the performance of men who flirt with women in the workplace, or even exam results in mixed-sex schools.

    Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man.

    This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities.

    Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived.

    Researchers said it was as if he was so keen to make an impression he 'temporarily absorbed most of his cognitive resources.'

    To see if other men were affected in the same way, they recruited 40 male heterosexual students.

    Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.

    The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

    The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

    But when the task was repeated with a group of female volunteers, they did not get the same results. Memory scores stayed the same, whether they had chatted to a man or a woman.

    In a report on their findings the researchers said: 'We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman.'

    Psychologist Dr George Fieldman, a member of the British Psychological Society, said the findings reflect the fact that men are programmed to think about ways to pass on their genes.

    'When a man meets a pretty woman, he is what we call 'reproductively focused'.

    'But a woman also looks for signs of other attributes, such as wealth, youth and kindness. Just the look of the man would be unlikely to have the same effect.'

    該項研究顯示，對男性大腦功能進行測試時，在公司里與漂亮女性說話，即使只說了幾分鐘的男性，表現得不如和沒有吸引力的人說話的男性。

    執行該項研究的研究人員解釋說原因或許是男性耗盡了過多的大腦能量或"認知資源"來試圖給漂亮女性留下好印象，這樣他們分配給其他任務的大腦能量就相對少了。該項研究發行在"實驗與社會心理學"雜志上。

    這項發現對公司里與女性調情的男性的表現抑或是男女混班的學校里的考試結果有所啟示。

    對女性而言，與一位英俊的男性交談卻并不受影響。

    這也許僅僅是因為男性的演化程序偏向更多的思考交配機會。

    這項研究是由荷蘭拉德伯德大學的心理學家發起的。事由其中一位心理學家急于給一位從未謀過面的漂亮女士留下好印象，以至于當那位女士問他住在哪兒時，他都想不起來了。

    研究人員稱這就好像他強烈想要留下好印象，暫時將自己大多數的認知資源都集中起來了。

    為了看其他男性是否會同樣被影響，研究人員招募了40名男性異性戀學生。

    每一個人進行一項標準記憶測試，即讓他們觀察一行字母，并讓他們盡快的說出來，檢查是否每個都一樣。

    然后在重復測試開始前，志愿者有7分鐘時間與研究組的男性或女成員交談。

    結果顯示，在試圖給女性留下印象后，男性表現得更慢且精確度也降低。女性越漂亮，男性表現得就越差。

    但是，當對女性志愿者進行重復測試時，結果與男性卻不一樣。無論與男性或女性交談，她們的記憶分數與之前的測試都一樣。

    在一份研究發現報告中，研究人員稱"我們推斷男性的認知功能在和一位迷人的女性交談后，可能會暫時降低。"

    英國心理學協會的心理學家喬治。菲爾斯德博士稱該發現反映了一個事實即男性的思維程序偏向傳遞基因。

    "當一位男性遇見一位漂亮的女性，他就會像我們所稱之為的'繁殖聚焦'"

    "但對女性而言，還會看其他方面，諸如財富、年輕與友善。僅男性外貌不太能影響女性。"