Introduction:
Coffee is a popular ubiquitous beverage in the daily life of an undergraduate student. For many it is a habit that gradually forms and stays. Its popularity lies in the key ingredient, caffeine, which decreases fatigue and instead increases alertness, features that aid an undergraduate student 's academic performance when studying on little sleep and going through the day (Giles et al., 2012). However, besides coffee 's use as a stimulant, can it be used to influence cognitive functioning, or is it merely a physical reaction? Does coffee have any impact on memory performance? Furthermore, does a habitual consumption of coffee enhance, inhibit, or do nothing for memory? This experiment seeks to test if coffee has an effect on the memory of a young adult via memory tests. The null hypothesis is that coffee does not have any significant effect on young adult’s memory.
Materials and Methods:
Through the usage of the Computerized Memory Interference Test (CMIT), a computer program that relies on visual cues to test a participant 's memory, the experiment sought to evaluate the cognitive functioning of a diverse group of undergraduate students. The students, ranging from ages 19-25, were first asked to complete a demographic questionnaire of four pages that included questions on their origin, past, habits, …show more content…
This supports the hypothesis that a young adult 's habitual coffee consumption has an effect on memory. Although, the effect might not be as favorable as believed. If the means of the daily and monthly consumers are any indication (135.8, 137.3, respectively), it’s possible that monthly coffee consumers have the higher number of correct responses. As for the average reaction time (0.83, 0.82), daily coffee consumers have the faster
Coffee is a popular ubiquitous beverage in the daily life of an undergraduate student. For many it is a habit that gradually forms and stays. Its popularity lies in the key ingredient, caffeine, which decreases fatigue and instead increases alertness, features that aid an undergraduate student 's academic performance when studying on little sleep and going through the day (Giles et al., 2012). However, besides coffee 's use as a stimulant, can it be used to influence cognitive functioning, or is it merely a physical reaction? Does coffee have any impact on memory performance? Furthermore, does a habitual consumption of coffee enhance, inhibit, or do nothing for memory? This experiment seeks to test if coffee has an effect on the memory of a young adult via memory tests. The null hypothesis is that coffee does not have any significant effect on young adult’s memory.
Materials and Methods:
Through the usage of the Computerized Memory Interference Test (CMIT), a computer program that relies on visual cues to test a participant 's memory, the experiment sought to evaluate the cognitive functioning of a diverse group of undergraduate students. The students, ranging from ages 19-25, were first asked to complete a demographic questionnaire of four pages that included questions on their origin, past, habits, …show more content…
This supports the hypothesis that a young adult 's habitual coffee consumption has an effect on memory. Although, the effect might not be as favorable as believed. If the means of the daily and monthly consumers are any indication (135.8, 137.3, respectively), it’s possible that monthly coffee consumers have the higher number of correct responses. As for the average reaction time (0.83, 0.82), daily coffee consumers have the faster