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In contrast to some non-human primate species, human females do not show overt cues to fertility. Previous research argued that women still show systematic changes in their appearance across their ovulatory cycle to enhance their mating success when fertile. We report five studies investigating whether women's clothing style and grooming behaviour change across the ovulatory cycle. All studies were large (with N = 157 in Study 1, N = 109 in Study 2, N = 257 in Studies 3–5), longitudinal studies with four testing sessions per participant. They involved salivary hormone samples and luteinizing hormone tests to validate conception risk estimates. Across all studies, our results suggest no compelling evidence for cycle shifts in clothing style and grooming. Rather, two studies suggest effects in the opposite direction as hypothesized, as women wore more skin-revealing clothes when non-fertile. One study suggests small effects of wearing necklaces more and eyeglasses less often when fertile. However, these effects were not robust across all studies. Our results are in line with other recent null replications and suggest that, if existent, cues to fertility might be even more subtle than previously assumed. We discuss the need for testing competing theories that explain the evolution of concealed ovulation.

Introduction: Intrusive memories occur frequently after potentially traumatic events and form a core symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) if they persist. The translational approach of visuospatial interventions tries to target those intrusive memories in order to reduce their frequency predominantly using an intervention including as one component the computer game Tetris. Despite promising results, the application of Tetris has critical drawbacks, e.g., potential commercial or copyright issues. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether it is this specific game or, as predicted by theory, a visuospatial task per se that leads to the effect. This study hence aims to compare the effect of Tetris with an alternative, bespoke visuospatial task:Mobilum developed for the current purpose.Methods: N=120 healthy participants watched a trauma film and recorded their intrusive memories in a diary for 6 days. Three days after watching the film, they were randomized to 3 groups and after memory reactivation cue received either Tetris or Mobilum or Control (no task). Prior to intervention 8 participants reported zero intrusive memories to the film and were excluded from further analyses, therefore 112 participants were included in the analysis.Results: A mixed Poisson regression model revealed that the Mobilum group had significantly less frequent intrusive memories after the intervention compared to the control condition (approximately 43%, p=0.0013). There was no significant difference for the Tetris group compared to Control (17 % less frequent, p=0.3798). Discussion: Our results suggest that visuospatial tasks other than Tetrisin this case, Mobilum can also lead to a reduction in intrusive memories when administered 3 days after a trauma film. This strengthens the assumption that it is not specifically the game Tetris, but rather the visuospatial nature of the task, that is responsible for the reduction. Aspects of further investigating the potential of Mobilum as well as clinical implications are discussed.