1. By Wesley Mauk Bellwood-Antis School District Grade 9

2. Problem Does chewing gum improve memory?

3. Reason for testing The act of chewing gum stimulates your brain cells. Others believe the act of chewing gum increases your heart rate and also increases your blood flow.  Sylvia Hubbard  UK psychologists  MSN Health

4. Hypothesis Chewing gum does improve memory.

5. Procedure-Preparing room 1. Place 10 test subjects in a non- distracting room. Inform subjects that they are not allowed to communicate. 2. Handout 1 sheet of paper with the 50 digit number sequence to each subject. Hand out blank paper, pencils. 3. Make sure each subject is seated the same and the temperature is 22° C.

6. Procedure-Preparing subjects 4. Handout 1 stick of gum to each subject. 5. Have each subject start to chew gum and start timer. 6. Allow 5 minutes for each subject to chew gum and memorize the number sequence. 7. After 5 minutes, stop timer and flip over the paper with the number sequence on them so they are not visible.

7. Procedure-Testing subjects 8. Allow subjects 2 minutes (use timer) to copy down as much of the number sequence as they can from memory. 9. Collect all materials. 10. Repeat stops 3-10, only without the subjects chewing gum and with a NEW number sequence. This is my control group!

8. Procedure-Testing the subjects 8. Allow subjects 2 minutes (use timer) to copy down as much of the number sequence as they can from memory. 9. Collect all materials. 10. Repeat stops 3-10, only without the subjects chewing gum and with a new number sequence. This is my control group!

9. Procedure-Scoring the test 11. Go through each list and compare the numbers written down to the numbers actually on the list. 12. Write the total number of numbers memorized on the top of the sheet.

10. Experimental Design Experimental Variable: Subjects chewing gum while memorizing. Experimental groups: Subjects chewing gum while memorizing, subjects not chewing gum while memorizing. Control group: Subjects not chewing gum.

11. Control Variables Gum  Type of Gum  Amount of gum (1 stick)  Flavor of gum Room  Lighting  Day  Time given to memorize  Non-distracting test room  Temperature  Time of day People  Seating position  Time given to memorize  Subjects are not allowed to communicate  Number sequence

12. # of numbers remembered Sub. 1Sub. 2Sub. 3Sub. 4Sub. 5Sub.6Sub.7Sub.8Sub. 9Sub. 10 28321378231042317 8211477121081214 KEY Top row: With Gum Bottom row: Without Gum

13. Results (Graph) Number of numbers memorized

14. Averages Without gumWith gum

15. Conclusion As you can see, chewing gum while studying tends to increase memory in 70% of the people.

16. Further Study  More people  Words  Longer numbers  pictures