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The Effects Of Caffeine On False Memory

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In today’s society, coffee has become the most prevalent and usual source of energization that many individuals turn to when they need vitality. Even though coffee is the most prominent, caffeine can also be found inside sodas, teas, and even energy drinks. Caffeine is a psychoactive drug that stimulates the central nervous system. A typical cup of coffee encompasses about ninety-five milligrams of caffeine. Studies have been performed to observe the effects of caffeine and how it effects so many individuals. For an instance, some studies have discovered that the effects of caffeine may be different for some individuals depending on individual differences such as level of fatigue (Oei & Hartley 2005). These effects lead people to …show more content…

Capek and Guenther (2009) found that caffeine can have an effect on memory but in different ways. For instant caffeine can lead to the creation of false memories. A false memory would be when a participant remembers a word that was not listed on the original word list that they studied. So they conducted a study on caffeine’s effects on true false memory. The purpose of their study was to determine if a strong dose of caffeine would enhance recall memory for lists of words and lead to the false recalls. The researchers conducted a double-blind placebo-control design, where thirty-seven participants were randomly assigned to a caffeine or placebo group. The participants were then given a memory test that consisted of six word lists with fifteen words per list. The four main results of their experiment were that: (1) words on the list were recalled more often than critical lures, for both the caffeine and placebo groups, (2) caffeine enhanced the memory for words on the lists, in comparison to the placebo, (3) caffeine enhanced false memory for the critical lures, in comparison to the placebo, and to about the same degree as caffeine enhanced correct recall, and (4) better memory for words on the list was negatively correlated with false memory of the critical lures, for both the caffeine and placebo groups (Capek & Guenther (2009). From this

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