Abstract
The present study aimed to conceptually replicate a recent study showing improvements in cognition when caffeine was consumed following learning. Thirty-two non-naive participants were administered 200mg of caffeine either: Pre-Learning, Post-Learning, or At-Retrieval, and compared to non-caffeine administered Controls. The learning and retrieval of non-verbal stimuli was assessed using a Korean Characters Non-Verbal Learning task, derived from the Shum Visual Learning task. Participants administered caffeine Pre-Learning and At-Retrieval were found to have significantly better initial learning of target stimuli than the Post-Learning and non-administered Controls. There was no significant difference found between groups on retrieval of the learned stimuli following a 20 minute interval between learning and retrieval. The findings suggested that the timing of caffeine consumption did not influence retrieval. While the improvements in initial learning of target stimuli demonstrated by the groups administered caffeine Pre-Learning and At-Retrieval appeared to be a potential placebo or expectancy effect.
Author Information
Andrew Garas, Bond University, Australia
Mark Bahr, Bond University, Australia
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