I’m sure we have all seen the cute, romantic, sappy Extra Gum commercial recently. It has been talked about quite frequently. For as much we would hate to admit it, it really is a very cute commercial. If you haven’t seen it, here it is:
This got me thinking about gum. As I pulled out a piece to chew in gum and offered one to a classmate, I thought, “I wonder what kind of effects gum has on our learning and cognitive performance. Certainly I am not the only one who has ever wondered this.
According to Andrew Scholey, recently it has been reported that chewing gum has an effect on cognitive processes. Here you will find a meta-analysis of different studies. Before any of the studies, their only idea was that gum maybe had something to do with glucose levels, which enhanced mental processes. In a study done by, Wilkinson, Scholey, and Wesnes, they experimented by having a portion of people chew gum and the other portion not chewing gum. Those who were chewing the gum performed much better than those that were not chewing gum when asked to complete a standardized test. These tests viewed both working memory and episodic memory, and both of these memories improved with the chewing of gum. They found that chewing gum might be indirectly linked to an insulin release.
In contrast to this test, there was another that reported that gum had no such effects. This study conducted by Tucha, Mecklinger, Maier, Hammerl, and Lange found a correlation between gum chewing and attention, but not between gum chewing and cognitive ability. But this may be due to a lousy experimental setup, gum flavor, third variables, etc.
In these experiments, there were four groups of participants. They were asked to recall a list of 15 words 24 hours later after looking at it for 2 mins. There was a group given gum before and gum during (gum-gum), a group given gum before and no gum during (gum-no gum), a group not given gum before and given gum during (no gum-gum), and a group given no gum before and no gum during (no gum-no gum). Here are the results:
As you can see, those who chewed gum before and during did the best on the test whether it be with the immediate response or the delayed response.
This study analyzes the findings of the effects of gum-chewing on memory. They conclude “that claims concerning an improvement of cognition associated with gum chewing should be viewed with caution.” They are basically saying that these studies have a good foundation, but could use some improvement to enhance certainty.
So what does this mean?
- Gum likely has a positive impact on cognitive processing.
- Gum-chewing deals with glucose levels.
- The theories apply to both working memory and episodic memory.
- Gum-chewing deals with insulin release.
- There are experiments that refute this theory.
- It is a good study design, but it could use improvement.
My recommendation? Chew some gum. There’s a chance it might help you out in school!
Not like I already do chew gum 24/7, but your analyzation of these meta-analyses gives me reason to continue to do so as well. To see that the effects of gum are greatly linked to better cognitive performance, it got me thinking if it’s largely due to the type of gum? Like, nicotine gum? Just as you thought about regular gum, what kinds of cognitive effects would nicotine gum have? This study here found that while stronger nicotine gum improved motor activity, it didn’t enhance the cognitive process.
This is a really interesting article but now I am wondering about the mechanism. Why does chewing gum help analytical parts of the brain? So, i looked it up and found this dental study where they scanned the brains of people chewing and not chewing. It was about mastication not gum but the idea still applies. They found that mastication actual increases oxygen flow to certain parts of the brain and even makes certain areas work harder. Study here: http://jdr.sagepub.com/content/81/11/743.short . It is really nteresting to think that chewing increases brain activity and this mechanism along with your studies makes at least a cooralational connection that needs further research.
As a student looking at the meta-analyses you provided, I would have no qualms with chewing gum before a test or while doing homework simply because the correlations are positive when it comes to the data from the experiment. An intelligent person would be willing to change this slight detail in their personal lives simply because anyone can see there is nothing to lose from chewing gum and something to possibly gain. But, as we all know, correlation need not equal causation. So while the gum chewing experiment data is positive and offers some evidence that chewing gum can help with cognitive processes, science can not completely prove that. And that is because correlation is not causation.