Daniel Willingham--Science & Education
Hypothesis non fingo
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Does chewing gum help you concentrate? Maybe briefly.

4/24/2012

 
Should kids be allowed to chew gum in class? If a student said "but it helps me concentrate. . ." should we be convinced?

If it provides a boost, it's short-lived.

It's pretty well established that a burst of glucose provides a brief cognitive boost (see review here), so the question is whether chewing gum in particular provides any edge over and above that, or whether a benefit would be observed when chewing sugar-free gum.
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One study (Wilkinson et al., 2002) compared gum-chewing to no-chewing (and "sham chewing" in which subjects were to pretend to chew gum, which seems awkward). Subjects performed about a dozen tasks, including some of vigilance (i.e., sustaining attention), short-term and long term memory.

Researchers reported some positive effect of gum-chewing for four of the tests. It's a little hard to tell from the brief write-up, but it appears that the investigators didn't correct their statistics for the multiple tests.

This throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks may be a characteristic of this research. Another study (Smith, 2010) took that same approach and concluded that there were some positive effects of gum chewing for some of the tasks, especially for feelings of alertness. (This study did not use sugar-free gum so it's hard to tell whether the effect is due to the gum or the glucose.)

A more recent study (Kozlov, Hughes & Jones, 2012) using a more standard short-term memory paradigm, found no benefit for gum chewing.

What are we to make of this grab-bag of results? (And please note this blog does not offer an exhaustive review.)

A recent paper (Onyper, Carr, Farrar & Floyd, 2011) offers a plausible resolution. They suggest that the act of mastication offers a brief--perhaps ten or twenty minute--boost to cognitive function due to increased arousal. So we might see benefit (or not) to gum chewing depending on the timing of the chewing relative to the timing of cognitive tasks.

The upshot: teachers might allow or disallow gum chewing in their classrooms for a variety of reasons. There is not much evidence to allow it for a significant cognitive advantage.

EDIT: Someone emailed to ask if kids with ADHD benefit. The one study I know of reported a cost to vigilance with gum-chewing for kids with ADHD

Kozlov, M. D., Hughs, R. W. & Jones, D. M. (2012). Gummed-up memory: chewing gum impairs short-term recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65, 501-513.

Onyper, S. V., Carr, T. L, Farrar, J. S. & Floyd, B. R. (2011). Cognitive advantages of chewing gum. Now you see them now you don't. Appetite, 57,  321-328.

Smith, A. (2010). Effects of chewing gum on cognitive function, mood and physiology in stressed an unstressed volunteers. Nutritional Neuroscience, 13, 7-16.

Wilkinson, L., Scholey, A., & Wesnes, K. (2002). Chewing gum selectively improves aspects of memory in healthy volunteers. Appetite, 38, 235-236.
C. M.
4/24/2012 08:33:37 am

One of the things that I love about your writing is your sense of humor! You take a pretty boring topic and make it readable and funny. Thanks!
Now, about the topic: my daughter's first grade teacher let the kids chew gum during tests. She gave them all a gumball, then after the test, went around with the trash can and made them spit it out. I don't know if the kids did better or not on the test, but they certainly enjoyed the experience more.

At the middle school, the kids convinced the administration to let them have gum for a couple weeks if they promised to behave and not spit it out in inappropriate places. They agreed but unfortunately, the kids didn't keep their end of the bargain, so the gum ban resumed. But the upshot was that the halls smelled "minty"--a definite improvement for a place filled with kids going through puberty. Everyone seemed much happier with the fresher air.

Todd Hausman
4/29/2012 04:33:15 am

I let my students chew gum for the first 15-20 minutes on testing days. While I'm not convinced there is a discernible achievement effect, it certainly helps create positive attitudes toward standardized testing. For that reason alone I will continue to allow short-term gum chewing, whether it boosts cognitive functioning or not.

Dan Willingham link
4/30/2012 01:46:05 pm

This point--that it provides an emotional lift--is really good one, I think.

bristol chat link
8/26/2012 06:36:30 pm

First time reading this blog, just wanted to say hi.

Dr Ben Christopherson link
9/3/2012 07:40:42 pm

Chewing gum boosts mental focus, but the effect dies after about 20 minutes.It contains really very useful information. Looking forward for your next post.


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    The goal of this blog is to provide pointers to scientific findings that are applicable to education that I think ought to receive more attention.

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