People use chewing
gum as a relaxant and enhance weight loss. However, as per research conducted
by various researchers it is found that chewing gum interferes with memory.
One of the most
common habits found across the world is chewing gum. More than 374 trillion
sticks are made every year and people use for a variety of purposes apart from
its flavor alone.
It relieves nervous
tension, relaxes the brain, loses weight, enhances, mental performance
and memory, and even accelerates recovery post gastrointestinal
surgeries. Researchers at the Centre for Occupational and Health Psychology,
Cardiff University, UK published a study according to which it was stated that
chewing gum increases accuracy, alertness and overall intellectual capability.
However, they did not find any effect on memory. Later, they
conducted another study which was published in Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology (2012) which stated that chewing gum can actually
hamper the memory-related tasks and also impair short-term memory.
Effect
of Chewing Gum on Memory
In order to assess
the effect of chewing gum on memory, a group of 40 students were
asked to simultaneously chew gum vigorously and memorize a whole sequence of
letters and words combined randomly in the order they heard. There was a second
group who were asked to do the same task as the first with the only difference
that they had to chew gum naturally. The third group had to identify missing
items from a sequence while they chewed on gum. In all the three cases they
found that there was reduced performance in
tasks related to short term memory. On a specific note, students
experienced forgetfulness and hence difficulty in recalling
the correct order of sequences.
Why
Did This Happen?
According to Gizmodo,
Australia, repetitive cognitive tasks are being interfered by the action of
chewing gum. You can try memorizing phone number by drumming your fingers
continuously and you will find it harder to memorize than without tapping. This
si the same logic applied while chewing as well. Researchers at Cardiff
University performed an experiment demonstrating the same. This helped them
conclude that both chewing and drumming interfered with memorizing and thus
compromised on short-term memory.
These results are in
direct contrast with the past three studies. The first one postulated that
chewing gum resulted in better spatial recognition memory and
improved the short-term memory. It also enhanced word and number
recognition tasks. The latter two studies concluded that chewing gum enhances
the recall performance of a long list of words. Some
researchers also hypothesize that gum enhances memory since
chewing stimulates blood flow to the brain. This does not explain the most
recent study which concluded that chewing gum actually catalyzes forgetfulness and
compromises on memory.
One reason suggested for the discrepancy is gum flavor. The authors of Cardiff study noted that in the latest study they did not use flavored gums and flavor is one of the beneficial factors of chewing gums.