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Chewing gum moderates the vigilance decrement.

Morgan, K., Johnson, A.J. and Miles, C.., 2014. Chewing gum moderates the vigilance decrement. British Journal of Psychology, 105 (2), 214 - 225 .

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DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12025

Abstract

We examine the impact of chewing gum on a Bakan-type vigilance task that requires the continual updating of short-term order memory. Forty participants completed a 30-min auditory Bakan-task either with, or without, the requirement to chew gum. Self-rated measures of mood were taken both pre- and post-task. As expected, the vigilance task produced a time-dependent performance decrement indexed via decreases in target detections and lengthened correct reaction times (RTs), and a reduction in post-task self-rated alertness scores. The declines in both performance and subjective alertness were attenuated in the chewing-gum group. In particular, correct RTs were significantly shorter following the chewing of gum in the latter stages of the task. Additionally, the gradients of decline for target detection and incline for correct RTs were both attenuated for the chewing-gum group. These findings are consistent with the data of Tucha and Simpson (2011), Appetite, 56, 299-301, who showed beneficial effects of chewing gum in the latter stages of a 30 min visual attention task, and extend their data to a task that necessitates the continuous updating of order memory. It is noteworthy that our data contradict the claim (Kozlov, Hughes, & Jones, 2012, Q. J. Exp. Psychology, 65, 501-513) that chewing gum negatively impacts short-term memory task performance.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:0007-1269
Uncontrolled Keywords:Acoustic Stimulation ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Affect ; Attention ; Chewing Gum ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mastication ; Memory, Short-Term ; Reaction Time ; Self Report ; Task Performance and Analysis ; Young Adult
Group:Faculty of Science & Technology
ID Code:22813
Deposited By: Symplectic RT2
Deposited On:03 Nov 2015 11:51
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 13:53

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