Today in my psychology class, we were discussing memory, and all of the different variables there are which have an effect on how well and what we remember. My professor mentioned a study where some students drank beer while studying for a test, and others did not, and then some of the students who drank while studying also drank before the test, and vice versa. It showed, as expected that the students who did not drink beer while studying, and who did not drink while taking the test had the best scores. But, what it also showed was that students who drank beer while studying are better off drinking before the test as well. This discussion made me wonder if drinking beer or maybe something a little less harmful (chewing gum) could help us remember information.
At Boston University, a study was conducted in which 193 students ages 21-24 drank beer (bringing their BAC to .12), and the other half drank alcohol-free beer. Then, the next week they drank the opposite of what they drank during the first week. The morning after each of the days that they drank, they had to take a version of the GRE and a quiz on a lecture they had heard the day before. The results of this study didn’t prove much, other than it did not have an affect on the students either way. So, I guess, what it did “prove” is that drinking the night before an exam will not necessarily harm your grade, but there are many confounding variables that essentially negate this claim. Some examples of these are that if you drink the night before, you are more likely to study less, or sleep through the class, etc.
Next, I looked into chewing gum and how it affects how we preform on memory tests. A study at University of Northumbria in Newcastle, England had 75 participants who were given a twenty minute memory test. The group was broken up into thirds; one group chewed gum, another did the chewing motion without actual gum, and the last did not chew at all. The students who chewed gum improved their scores by 35%. The person who conducted this study also mentioned that chewing gum raises the heart beat by 3BPM. This increases blood flow in the brain which can lead to better memory/learning. I though that 35% sounded a bit extreme for something as simple as chewing gum, so I found another study which followed more people for a longer period of time.
The final study that I looked at was conducted by Baylor College of Medicine. 108 8th graders were divided into two groups and followed for 14 weeks. One of the groups chewed gum while doing homework and tests, and the other did not chew gum at all. The students who chewed gum had a 3% increase (much more reasonable) in their standardized math tests and had better final grads compared to those who did not chew gum. Also, the students who were chewing gum did not need as many study breaks, and were able to stay quiet longer.
These findings show that drinking beer before a test, or while studying is not the best plan, and chewing gum may help you a little bit; just make sure that it is sugar free!
http://www.bu.edu/today/2010/binge-drinking-doesn’t-hurt-next-day-tests/
http://www.psychologistworld.com/memory/chewing_gum.php
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/22/chewing.gum.benefits/
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/HEALTH/04/22/chewing.gum.benefits/art.gum.chewing.girl.gi.jpg
http://cdn.siasat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/beer.jpg
Since you mentioned how chewing gum while working on homework and during the test can trigger your memory as well as with drinking beer, I wonder what else would help with that, if anything? Say you repeat the same activity you did while studying while taking a test, will it have the same benefits? Can this study be used towards finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease or at least delaying the memory loss a little longer? It would be interesting to research. Also can a 3% increase be noted as reliable evidence or is it just solely due to chance?
I can never imagine that drinking beer can help us memorizing better. But I found an article about drinking beer while we are doing our homework. Here is the link for you: http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2013/11/04/good-idea-drink-homework/
I found it interesting because the result shows that drinking while we doing our homework can actully help with our creativity but not math and science subjects. I think that is because after we drink, we cannot really think logically but it provides us an opportunity to do something crazy. So our creativity actually develops. I guess while we are doing art works, we should drink beer in order to be more creative.
Wow this is really interesting. I have never thought about beer and the affects it has on studying. I am surprised that drinking beer has no effect on how people do on tests. I would have thought that it would decrease performance, but maybe it just calms people down and makes them a little more relaxed? I do not understand that if you are under the influence this could quite possibly benefit you in some way. I do understand the chewing gum part though. When I ran cross country in high school I also used to chew gum. I felt it would give me something to do and distracted me (in a good way) to not make me as nervous. I think the same thing could apply to taking a test.
Drinking beer before a test almost certainly seems like a poor decision because of the outcome it may provide. It is very interesting however that drinking beer the night before while studying and before the test shows no results of memory less as seen in the study. That is crazy to think about and the only thing I can think of for this reasoning is that since you were drinking while studying, doing the same thing before the test is what triggers your memory from studying the night before. Chewing gum I have always heard helps during tests and if I remember to I always try to chew gum during tests. I never realized how much it improved focus though and I always thought I was just really superstitious.
I never would have thought about being drunk while taking an academic test. When my roommate came back from this exact class and told me what happened in it, I thought she was insane. I just don’t understand how being drunk during a test could not effect the results. The gum I can understand though. When growing up taking standardized tests in elementary and middle school, our teachers would always supply us with chewing gum because they said it helped us stay focused. Now I know the science behind it and that it really is true. I know that when I chew gum now I am able to focus better and I don;t get distracted as easily. So, I guess that I fit right in with the test done on the 8th graders.
I am not very surprised by the beer results. I couldn’t imagine it would help you study as that is the last thing I would want to do while drinking beer. The gum thing is quite interesting. In High School we were not allowed to chew gum at all during school, but during standardized tests teachers would give out peppermints. They said there was something about peppermint that would help. So I looked it up, and I found this Washington Post article. It explains that some people think peppermints slightly improve test score and others do not. We would have to do an experiment to come to any further conclusion. I am wondering if there could be any sort of correlation between the peppermint and the gum.
The study and the results done with beer is very interesting especially since alcohol consumption often results in memory loss. Do you think maybe not the beer itself helped with memory and test outcome but rather just the act of drinking beer before studying and then before the test? I feel like drinking beer before studying and then drinking it again before taking a test would trigger the brain to remember the night before and the information taken in from studying.