Effects of Caffeine on the Memory
John Harris
Students might think that the only positive effect that caffeine has would be the boost of energy it gives, but it may also help in another way. There have been many previous studies on how caffeine may affect the memory of animals, but recently it has been tested on people by Dr. Michael Yassa of Johns Hopkins University.
In order to test the impact of caffeine on humans, Yassa and other researchers enlisted 60 people who do not usually ingest much caffeine. The subjects looked at a series of 200 different pictures. Five minutes after the test they were given a pill, but the subjects did not know if they were given a caffeine pill or a placebo.
The next day they were told to look at another set of pictures and state whether they had seen it the day before. The people who had taken the caffeine pill did better at remembering if a picture was similar than someone who took the placebo.
There have not been enough studies or experiments to prove if caffeine enhances memory, but this is the first step of finding out.