Caffeine's Effect On Memory

It can be difficult to escape consuming caffeine because it is ubiquitous, and people have been reporting withdrawal symptoms from it for over 170 years (Juliano, & Griffiths, 2004). Beverages that contain caffeine are habit forming and can lead to addictive behavior such as withdrawal and dependence (Olekalns, & Bardsley, 1996). Its prevalence in society is noteworthy, and much research has been done to study its effects. In a basic study on delayed recall and sustained attention by Creeley and Keleman (2001), it was found that caffeine’s effect was minimal but the caffeine did produce psychoactive effects on individuals such as holding attention longer and reporting arousal. The caffeinated participants also always did better with sustained

(2014) sought to improve on previous studies such as the ones formerly mentioned. Because most studies on caffeine’s effect on memory administered caffeine to participants before they started to learn, it skewed the results, and with the revised testing process, the study found that people who had 200 mg of caffeine did better on consolidation memory. Another study by Favila and Kuhl (2014) was also set up a little differently; participants only included people who normally consumed low amounts of caffeine and memory testing was done one day after learning. From these tests, it was found that caffeine does promote memory consolidation and memory enhancement while the placebo did not show significant

Warburton, Bersellini, and Sweeney (2001) did testing with a taurine mixture, which is commonly found in caffeinated drinks, and a sugar mixture. Tests done on attention, verbal reasoning, verbal memory, spatial memory, and mood showed that there were improved information processing and increased feelings of alertness in the group administered the caffeine taurine drink. The sugar drink had no significant effect on the subjects. The significance of this article was that accounted for the other ingredients found in caffeinated drinks such as taurine and sugar.

In a study by Smith (2013), it was found that there is a link between extroversion, memory, and caffeine in the brain to dopamine. He wanted to know if extroverts would benefit more from caffeine than introverts on memory because extroverts produce more dopamine in social situations and caffeine also contributes to this process. The tests he ran consisted of serial recall tasks, running memory tests, encoding and simple reaction. There were interactions of caffeine and extroversion in the serial recall tests and in running memories. Overall, the extroverts did benefit more from the