My experimentBy James

AIMTo see if some types of chewing gum affect human

memory.My hypothesis is that chewing gum does improve

memory. It Is believed that hormones released in the body when chewing gum are the same hormones that

effect memoryJapanese researchers showed that brain activity in the hippocampus (an area important for memory in the brain), increases while people chew - but it is

not clear why.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2039-chewing-gum-improves-memory.html

Equipment

3 types of chewing gum , two box’s of 5 gum (watermelon flavour), two box’s of extra gum (peppermint flavour), & two box’s hubba bubba ( strawberry flavour)

2 groups of 5 people from grade 5/6, 5 people who like chewing gum and have it all the time and 5 people who don’t have so often

twelve 7 digit numbers( random number) and make sure no one sees

Method 1.show a 7 digit number to one of the groups

of 5 people for 10 seconds then show the other group a different number

2. then give them the hubba bubba gum, 1 piece only to everyone from both groups

3. Let them chew for 15 minutes 4. after that, wait another 15 minutes 5. after that ask them wether they can

remember and record it in a journal 6. do the experiment without chewing gum

but just ask them after the first 15 minutes. And then do it with 5 gum then without then Extra gum then without.

Results

The number on the right of the backslash is the people & on the left is how many people guessed correctly .

Gum Chewing Not chewing

Hubba bubba 7/10 3/10

5 gum 7/10 4/10

extra 8/10 4/10

average 7.67 3.67

Graph

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/

This is a graph of my results

DiscussionI chose this experiment because I

wanted to know if chewing gum improves short term memory. I wonder about the effects of chewing gum on the recall part of the brain.

This experiment took 4-5 weeks, the cost of the chewing gum was $9. I had a few small difficulties in the experiment like

when the people I needed were away

the first experiment was miss timed.

Next time I won’t have the two groups and I will have more people and do the experiment more than once and try it on different age groups.

conclusion

In conclusion , chewing gum does improve short term memory Because Chewing gum raises the heart beat by around 3 BPM, increasing blood flow in the upper part area of the brain, which could explain the improvement in such brain activity.

http://www.psychologistworld.com/memory/chewing_gum.php