i think this occurs regardless of gender. extreme feelings, be they lust or jealousy or whatever, can trump reason. pretty obvious fact of being human.
The theory behind it is presented to quite a high level of detail in Cryptonomicon, almost to the point to make you believe it if you've ever gone through something like it.
The study claims to have "some interesting practical and theoretical implications, for example with regard to recently revived debates about single-sex vs. coed schools." Perhaps, but my impression is that the study consists of situations where the "confederates" are not previously acquainted, which would not likely be the case in a school setting.
Some time ago, one of the male authors was chatting with a very attractive girl he had not met before. While he was anxious to make a good impression, when she asked him where he lived, he suddenly could not remember his street address.
It's interesting that women aren't similarly affected by mixed-sex interactions. Coed education disadvantages men?
Aren't they? I've seen plenty of women get tongue tied around men they're attracted to.
It's likely a matter of it being socially acceptable for a woman to smile nervously and stare at the floor during courtship, so losing one's cool is a problem from a man's perspective, but is all part of the experience from a woman's.
It's a long-running hot potato in education. The studies seem to swing all over the place (as do the attitudes of schools willing to "experiment" with the topic). A high level hop around the subject: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/jun/25/schools.gender2
On other news, they also discovered that ice is cold and that windows is not virus-free.