Caffeine is an efficient drug, crossing the blood-brain barrier quickly to block adenosine receptors that are distributed widely throughout cortical regions. But does it actually help?Ĭaffeine is the most widely used stimulant, consumed daily by 80% of the world’s population and 90% of the North American population ( Heckman et al., 2010). Many students rely on coffee – caffeine – to get them through those early morning exams. The majority of college students perform worse in the early morning compared to the afternoon on a variety of cognitive tasks that measure attention ( Knight and Mather, 2013), learning ( Anderson et al., 1991 Hidalgo et al., 2004), memory ( Petros et al., 1990 May et al., 1993), and metamemory ( Hourihan and Benjamin, 2013), skills that are critical for academic success. Importantly, this circadian slump comes with a cognitive cost. The experiment 2010 true story skin#Unfortunately many classes and entrance exams are only offered during the time when most students are at their physiological low point of the day, as measured by body temperature, skin conductance, and heart rate ( Horne and Ostberg, 1976 Bailey and Heitkemper, 2001). These findings have real-world implications for students taking morning exams.Īs any college student will tell you, the worst time to take a class is first thing in the morning. These results suggest that caffeine has a specific benefit for memory during students’ non-optimal time of day – early morning. Despite clear increases in physiological arousal, exercise did not improve memory performance compared to a stretching control condition. In Experiment 2, participants engaged in cardiovascular exercise in order to examine whether increases in physiological arousal similarly improved memory. Caffeine did not alter memory performance in the afternoon. During the morning, participants ingesting caffeine demonstrated a striking improvement in explicit memory, but not implicit memory. After consuming coffee (caffeinated or decaffeinated), college-age adults completed implicit and explicit memory tasks in the early morning and late afternoon (Experiment 1). Although students drink caffeinated beverages to feel more awake, it is unclear whether these actually improve performance. Many college students struggle to perform well on exams in the early morning.
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