MEMORY GUM!

By Wesley Mauk

Bellwood-Antis School District

Grade 9

Problem

Does chewing gum improve memory?

Reason for testing

The act of chewing gum stimulates your brain cells.

Others believe the act of chewing gum increases your heart rate and also increases your blood flow.

Sylvia Hubbard UK psychologists MSN Health

Hypothesis

Chewing gum does improve memory.

Procedure-Preparing room1. Place 10 test subjects in a non-

distracting room. Inform subjects that they are not allowed to communicate.

2. Handout 1 sheet of paper with the 50 digit number sequence to each subject. Hand out blank paper, pencils.

3. Make sure each subject is seated the same and the temperature is 22° C.

Procedure-Preparing subjects4. Handout 1 stick of gum to each subject.

5. Have each subject start to chew gum and start timer.

6. Allow 5 minutes for each subject to chew gum and memorize the number sequence.

7. After 5 minutes, stop timer and flip over the paper with the number sequence on them so they are not visible.

Procedure-Testing subjects8. Allow subjects 2 minutes (use timer) to

copy down as much of the number sequence as they can from memory.

9. Collect all materials.

10. Repeat stops 3-10, only without the subjects chewing gum and with a NEW number sequence. This is my control group!

Procedure-Testing the subjects

8. Allow subjects 2 minutes (use timer) to copy down as much of the number sequence as they can from memory.

9. Collect all materials.

10. Repeat stops 3-10, only without the subjects chewing gum and with a new number sequence. This is my control group!

Procedure-Scoring the test11. Go through each list and compare the

numbers written down to the numbers actually on the list.

12. Write the total number of numbers memorized on the top of the sheet.

Experimental Design

Experimental Variable: Subjects chewing gum while memorizing.

Experimental groups: Subjects chewing gum while memorizing, subjects not chewing gum while memorizing.

Control group: Subjects not chewing gum.

Control Variables

Gum Type of Gum Amount of gum (1

stick) Flavor of gum

Room Lighting Day Time given to

memorize Non-distracting test

room Temperature Time of day

PeopleSeating positionTime given to memorizeSubjects are not allowed to communicateNumber sequence

# of numbers remembered

Sub. 1 Sub. 2 Sub. 3 Sub. 4 Sub. 5 Sub.6 Sub.7 Sub.8 Sub. 9 Sub. 10

28 32 13 7 8 23 10 4 23 17

8 21 14 7 7 12 10 8 12 14

KEYTop row: With GumBottom row: Without Gum

Results (Graph)

With Without0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

28 832 2113 147 78 723 1210 104 823 1217 14

Sub. 1 Sub. 2 Sub. 3 Sub. 4 Sub. 5Sub. 6 Sub. 7 Sub. 8 Sub. 9 Sub. 10

Num

ber

of n

umbe

rs m

emor

ized

Averages

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Averages

Nu

mb

er

of

nu

mb

ers

me

mo

rize

d

Without gumWith gum

Conclusion

As you can see, chewing gum while studying tends to increase memory in 70% of the people.

Further Study

More people Words Longer numbers pictures