Caffeine's effects on true and false memory.

Full Abstract

Caffeine's effects on recall of word lists were investigated using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. College students were administered either 200 mg of caffeine or a 250-mg lactose placebo; after 30 min., they were tested on recall using six word lists. Words of each list were semantically related to a single word (a "critical lure") that was not presented in the list. Participants administered caffeine recalled more list words and more critical lures than participants administered lactose. Recall of list words was negatively correlated with recall of critical lures. Caffeine appears to intensify the strength of connections among list words and critical lures, thereby enhancing both true and false memory.

Author information

Author/s: Capek, Sarah (S); Guenther, R Kim (RK);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Hamline University, 1536 Hewitt, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Psychological reports (Psychol Rep), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jun; vol 104 (issue 3) : pp 787-95

Dates: Created 2009/08/27; Completed 2009/10/21;

PMID: 19708406, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/21/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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