How can chewing gum help you concentrate

The takeaway of this research is straightforward: When taking a test, save the gum for the hardest part, or for those questions when you feel your focus flagging. The gum will help you concentrate, but the help won't last long. This latest paper only adds to the impressive body of psychological literature on gum. Last month, scientists at Coventry University found that people chewing mint gum showed a dramatic decrease in feelings of sleepiness. The subjects also looked less exhausted when assessed with the Pupillographic Sleepiness Test PST , which uses the oscillations of the pupils as a metric of tiredness.

When we chew gum, we gain alertness and attention, but without the jitters. And then there's this paper, from a researcher at Cardiff University. They were also randomly assigned gum flavors, treated to a selection of fruits and mints.

Approximately half of the volunteers were tested while listening to a screeching noise -- this was the stress condition -- while the other volunteers took the test in a quiet room. After each testing session, the volunteers rated their mood and underwent a number of physiological measurements, including heart rate and salivary cortisol levels.

Cortisol is a stress hormone, but it's also a good indicator of alertness. As expected, gum chewers were more attentive than non-chewers, with elevated heart rates and cortisol levels. They also had much faster reaction times, especially on more difficult reaction tests. Hopefully for younger generations, they will see information like this, and allow children to chew gum if it will help improve their test scores! I was always told it that chewing gum while studying helped you remember more information on a test.

Ive tried this theory and it never worked for me. I feel like this a placebo effect and thats why people say it works. As you said research shows thats it does help but only for a short period of time which is not very useful if you have a test 24 hours later. However, I will start chewing gum during test because he wakes your brain up and keeps you awake.

And I am glad to hear that there is! I love to chew gum during classes because it helps me to stay focused and it helps to distract me from being hungry. But if there is research that gum can help improve test scores, should gum be recommended in classrooms? The researchers found that the former group outperformed those in the latter group on subsequent terminology and comprehension tests.

However, they did not report higher levels of alertness following the study of test materials. The researchers then conducted a second experiment where the participants were again either assigned to the chewing gum condition or not. However, this time they were only given 9 minutes to study a maths lesson.

Taken together, these results show that chewing gum, even for a relatively short period of time, can boost how much students learn, and in some cases may improve alertness. However, this does come with a word of warning - if schools are going to allow their students to employ this strategy, they need to ensure that they set up a system where chewing gum can be disposed of easily and properly. Recent research demonstrated that the natural pigment found within berries known as flavonoids significantly delays decline in memory when people eat two or more servings of berries per week.

Blueberries also contain antioxidants, which can accumulate in the brain and help improve communication between brain cells, which also acts to boosts memory. Before school, revision and particularly an exam, students should ensure that they have a healthy breakfast.

An ideal breakfast is one that contains wholegrains, for example porridge or wholemeal bread, as this helps keep blood sugar levels balanced.

This in turn improves student concentration and mood.