The Impact Of Daily Vs Weekly Coffee Consumption On Adult Memory
Caffeine has been shown to have many positive impacts on adults including better focus, memory retention and decreases the risk of Hepatitis as well as liver disease. According to Alexander Hodge et. al coffee consumption is associated with better health and lower risk of liver disease, Hepatitis B and C. Additionally, it was also seen that coffee might also be beneficial to those who already have liver disease.
Furthermore, there has been many studies done on coffee and its relationship with memory. For instance, previous studies have shown the impact of coffee on adult memory during their non-optimal time of day. According to this study, many young adults tend to do better on exams and quizzes in their non-optimal time of day after consuming coffee; but, coffee showed no improvement in their memory during the afternoon. Therefore, the study was able to conclude that coffee does indeed improve both memory retention and recalling during the non-optimal time of day.
However, no one has focused on the frequency of coffee consumed and its relation to memory. This knowledge gap is very significant because if one cup of coffee a day has been shown to improve memory, one should test to see the optimal cups of coffee a day for maximum retention. Therefore, we need to not only focus on the time of day but also the amount of coffee cups consumed. This study focused more on the impact of daily vs weekly consumption of coffee on adult memory using the Memory interference Test (MIT). The MIT is able to measure an individual's competency level through a series of surveys that ask to identify previous shown photos while tracking number of correct responses as well as response tim.
In this study, the alternative hypothesis is that daily coffee drinkers will have a different number of correct responses on the MIT compared to those who only drink coffee weekly. On the other hand, the null hypothesis states that there will be no significant difference between daily and weekly coffee drinkers.
The study was conducted using the MIT which is a computer program is used to measure the participant's memory. The MIT took approximately 15 minutes with an additional 5 minutes for the demographic survey. The demographic survey asked general questions about the individual including their age, gender, background information as well as their mental, emotional and physical state prior to taking the MIT. An individual’s mental state my skew the results. For instance, if a person is stressed they tend to do poorly on the MIT. The responses from the survey were placed in database where specific scores are not accessible and different categories were made to group the participants.
The test that was performed in this study was a Picture Memory Interference Test. The Picture MIT flashed a series of images on the computer screen. The MIT has 4 memory test in which 3 of them are the same and a response time test. In tests 1 through 3, the participants were presented with a list of 50 images that consisted of 20 target images and 30 distractors. They were asked to item the target images. The number of correct responses and response time was recorded. Then in test 4, they were presented with 60 images which had 10 target images from each test 1 through 3 along with 30 distractors. Then test 5 only tested the reaction time of the participants. Although this test is not significant in this study, it was still part of the MIT and it could helps future studies. The participants are presented with 50 photos that have 20 squares and 30 circles and were asked to identify the squares and circles. The MIT provided us with the average number of correct responses as well as the average response time. Afterwards, the results were collected and put into two different groups: daily and weekly coffee drinkers.
Only the averages of both groups were observed, not individual scores. The MIT povided the mean, Standard deviation, median, and maximum as well as minimum score of each set. Through these, the program is able to find a T-test value. The T-test value provide the necessary information to determine if the results are statistically significant, meaning if there is a significant difference in memory and recall levels between the two groups.
With the T- value we are able to find the p-value. In order for the results to be significant, the p-value must be below 5% or 0. 05. In this study, the T-value was 2. 076, therefore, placing it between the t-values 2. 056 and 2. 330. This results in a p-value that is between 2% and 4% which means that we fail to reject the null hypothesis.
