Cognitive Enhancer

Introduction

Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant on college campuses. It stimulates the central nervous system as it temporarily combats drowsiness, and restores alertness. Caffeine’s “powers” are the perfect anecdote for college student’s busy lives, but what if the opposite was true? Whether students barely come into contact with caffeine, and others use it habitually the study researchers whether caffeine has an effect on their cognitive processes. Daily caffeine regulars and sometime users consume it in many different ways, which are coffee, tea, cola drinks, candy bars, cocoa, cold and diet medications, and sleep prevention compounds, and they also consume it in various different doses. Caffeine is in about 100 medications, stimulants like NoDoz, cold preparations, appetite suppressants and mood elevating agents (Addicott, 2009). The psychophysiological effects of the stimulant include alertness, anxiety, heart rate, and these effects can result in a different performance on different task (Acevedo, 1988). The research questions whether the effects of caffeine have a positive or negative impact on student’s cognitive abilities.

During tasks that involve memory, and other cognitive processes the research will try to confirm the belief that caffeine is a cognitive enhancer. Whether students are in a withdrawn state, a normal caffeinated state, or just moderately use caffeine it has an effect on their memory, attention, planning, capacity, and psychomotor performance. Along with the effects of caffeine, student’s performance can be influence by other factors such as mood, the time of day, personality, intelligence, age, memory span, education, gender, socioeconomic status, occupation, smoking, expectancy, and/or alcoh...

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