Effects of a low dose of caffeine given in different drinks on mood and performance

✍ Scribed by Andrew Smith; Wendy Sturgess; John Gallagher

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 142 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1077(199910)14:7<473::aid-hup129>3.0.co;2-d

✦ Synopsis

An experiment was carried out to examine the eects of 40 mg of caeine given in dierent drinks (coee, water, tea, cola) on mood and performance. One hundred and forty-four volunteers were randomly assigned to one of the groups formed by combining the caeine/placebo and drinks conditions. Following a baseline session measuring mood and dierent aspects of performance, the volunteers were given their drink and then carried out another test session 1 h later. Administration of the caeine/placebo was double-blind. The results showed that those given caeine reported greater alertness and anxiety at the end of the test session, as well as improved performance on choice reaction time tasks involving focused attention and categoric search, a semantic memory task and a delayed recognition memory task. The eect of the caeine was not modi®ed by the nature of the drink in which it was given. Overall, these results show that a dose of caeine typical of the level found in commercial products can improve alertness and performance eciency.