When I was in middle school, I remember asking a teacher for a Mento to chew on during a test. After giving me the Mento, he proceeded to tell me that chewing it during my class would actually enhance my memory. As a result of being the immature, naive sixth grader I was, I believed this myth and started bringing gum to every test. However, does gum actually make you smarter? Does it facilitate the flow of memory? Or is it just completely ineffective? After pondering this question for many years I decided to do some research and was stunned by what I had found.
In a study published on The Scientific American, researchers decided to take this schooling myth into question. Researches randomly assigned two groups of twenty people each. One group was assigned to chew gum and the other was not. After members were assigned each group, they then listened to a recording which consisted of a sequence of different numbers. As a matter of fact, the group that chewed gum during the recording had faster reaction times, higher accuracy rates, and finally, were able to keep their attention focused longer than the opposing group. Even though this study did prove beneficial side effects one group experienced while chewing gum, this cannot be the only source that one bases their opinion off of. Opposing this study was one conducted by the British Journal of Psychology in 2012. Instead of proving that chewing gum facilitates brain power, this study showed that, as a matter of fact, short-term memory was decreased. However, this study, similar to the study mentioned in The Scientific American, does not prove that chewing gum is detrimental to learning either. To fully understand this topic, multiple studies must be conducted in order to finalize any sort of conclusion.
So does gum really help brain capacity? Amy Kraft, of The Scientific American, states that researchers declare gum in fact boosts the movement of oxygen that flows to the attention centers of the brain. “More oxygen can keep people alert and improve their reflexes” (scientificamerican.com.) Similar to the original study mentioned, other groups of researchers decided to test this myth as well. According to CNN, “Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine took 108 eighth-grade math students from a Houston, Texas, charter school and divided them into two groups, following them for 14 weeks.” This study also consisted of two groups, one which was instructed to chew gum, and the other did not while they did their homework. The results concluded that the group that chewed gum received a three percent increase in their standardized math scores compared to the group that did not chew gum. Secondly, the students who did not chew gum suffered from lower final test grades versus the gum chewers.
In conclusion, it seems that chewing gum really does influence brain power and the increase of memory. Even though it has not officially been scientifically proven, it has been tested positive in a fair share of studies. As for now, I am definitely going to start chewing gum when I study and see if my grades actually do increase!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/gum-chewing-may-improve-concentrati-13-03-26/
This bog was awesome to read because I always chew gum in class. I never knew that it actually helped me out in school so I was pretty happy to learn about that. I wanted to look up the other beneficial effects of gum and I found some interesting facts! Gum can surprisingly improve your memory. This is because the hippocampus increases while chewing gum. Gum can also reduce stress symptoms. This is because it releases energy from being nervous and can serve as an outlet for someone’s frustration. Gum also helps manage weight. Instead of having a snack you can just chew a piece of gum to make your hunger go away. Here is an article that also gives the benefits of chewing gum that you may enjoy! http://www.ada.org/en/science-research/ada-seal-of-acceptance/product-category-information/chewing-gum