Chewing gum and context‐dependent memory: The independent roles of chewing gum and mint flavour

Johnson, Andrew; Miles, Christopher

doi:10.1348/000712607x228474

Cited by 40 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In this sense the present study has failed to replicate our earlier findings (Stephens & Tunney, 2004) and those of other researchers (Wilkinson et al, 2002;Baker et al, 2004, experiment 1;Tucha et al, 2004, experiment 2). However, the absence of enhanced cognitive performance brought about by chewing gum is consistent with other research (Tucha et al, 2004, experiment 1;Allen, Norman, & Katz, 2008;Johnson & Miles, 2008;Smith, 2009a;Smith, 2009b). Nevertheless, chewing gum was shown to be beneficial to performance compared with not chewing on the Digit Span test when a secondary task of counting sounded tones was concurrently performed.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…On the other hand, Tucha et al (2004) found chewing gum did not enhance participants' immediate and delayed word recall and differentially affected aspects of attention, enhancing sustained attention, showing no effect for divided attention, selective attention, visual scanning and vigilance, and showing decrements in tonic alertness, phasic alertness and flexibility. In addition, recent studies have found no memory enhancement from chewing gum (Smith, 2009a;Smith, 2010), no enhanced learning (Allen, Norman, & Katz, 2008), no improvement in attentional performance (Smith, 2009b) and have not reproduced the context-dependent memory effects that had been observed earlier Johnson & Miles, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

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Do Individual Differences Moderate the Cognitive Benefits of Chewing Gum?

Stephens¹,

Edelstyn²

2011

PSYCH

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Recent experiments investigating whether chewing gum enhances cognitive performance have shown mixed results and a recent replication failed to reproduce earlier findings. The present experiment aimed to investigate whether participant individual differences underlie the discrepant findings. Therefore, in addition to examining differences in Digit Span and Spatial Span performance across gum and control groups, chronotype, extraversion, habitual tiredness, current stress, current arousal and current thirst were assessed using questionnaires. Task difficulty was also manipulated. While there were no chewing gum effects under standard testing conditions, chewing gum enhanced Digit Span performance in the more difficult dual task condition. Furthermore, Spatial Span performance was improved by chewing gum in introverts but not extraverts and chewing gum was shown to eliminate the negative relationship between thirst and Digit Span performance. In explaining these data it is proposed that chewing gum may act both to reduce stress and to alleviate thirst.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Do Individual Differences Moderate the Cognitive Benefits of Chewing Gum?

Stephens¹,

Edelstyn²

2011

PSYCH

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“…Whether or not gum chewing improves human cognitive function remains an open discussion. Researchers at other laboratories claim that, although gum chewing helps to sustain attention and arousal, it has no effect on learning and memory abilities (63)(64)(65)(66) or even worsens them (67).…”

Section: Does Masticatory Stimulation Facilitate Human Cognitive Funcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occlusion and brain function: mastication as a prevention of cognitive dysfunction

Ono

Yamamoto

Kubo

et al. 2010

Journal of Oral Rehabilitation

163

188

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Research in animals and humans has shown that mastication maintains cognitive function in the hippocampus, a brain area important for learning and memory. Reduced mastication, an epidemiological risk factor for the development of dementia in humans, attenuates spatial memory and causes hippocampal neurons to deteriorate morphologically and functionally, especially in aged animals. Active mastication rescues the stress-attenuated hippocampal memory process in animals and attenuates the perception of stress in humans by suppressing endocrinological and autonomic stress responses. Active mastication further improves the performance of sustained cognitive tasks by increasing the activation of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, the brain regions that are essential for cognitive processing. Abnormal mastication caused by experimental occlusal disharmony in animals produces chronic stress, which in turn suppresses spatial learning ability. The negative correlation between mastication and corticosteroids has raised the hypothesis that the suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis by masticatory stimulation contributes, in part, to preserving cognitive functions associated with mastication. In the present review, we examine research pertaining to the mastication-induced amelioration of deficits in cognitive function, its possible relationship with the HPA axis, and the neuronal mechanisms that may be involved in this process in the hippocampus.

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“…To what extent might these results be dependent upon shifts in flavour perception, and therefore, salience, between the one gum pellet and four gum pellets conditions? Previous work in our laboratory (Johnson & Miles, 2008) has investigated the potential of flavour in the absence of chewing to provide a sufficiently salient context in free recall. Participants were presented with mint flavour strips in a typical context manipulation experimental design.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of chewing gum resistance on immediate free recall

Rickman

Johnson

Miles

2012

British J of Psychology

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Although the facilitative effects of chewing gum on free recall have proved contentious (e.g., Tucha, Mecklinger, Maier, Hammerl, & Lange, 2004; Wilkinson, Scholey, & Wesnes, 2002), there are strong physiological grounds, for example, increased cerebral activity and blood flow following the act of mastication, to suppose facilitation. The present study manipulated resistance to mastication, that is, chewing four pellets versus one pellet of gum, with the assumption that increased resistance will accentuate cerebral activity and blood flow. Additionally, chewing rate was recorded for all participants. In a within-participants design, participants performed a series of immediate free recall tasks while chewing gum at learning (one or four pellets) and recall (one or four pellets). Increased chewing resistance was not associated with increased memory performance, despite consistent chewing rates for both the one and four pellet conditions at both learning and recall. However, a pattern of recall consistent with context-dependent memory was observed. Here, participants who chewed the equivalent number of gum pellets at both learning and recall experienced significantly superior word recall compared to those conditions where the number of gum pellets differed.

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Chewing gum and context‐dependent memory: The independent roles of chewing gum and mint flavour

Cited by 40 publications

References 20 publications

Do Individual Differences Moderate the Cognitive Benefits of Chewing Gum?

Do Individual Differences Moderate the Cognitive Benefits of Chewing Gum?

Occlusion and brain function: mastication as a prevention of cognitive dysfunction

The impact of chewing gum resistance on immediate free recall

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