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Abstract

Caffeine is commonly used by college students to aid in staying alert throughout the day. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of caffeine on visual memory and reaction time performance on college students aged 18-25 years old. The Human Benchmark (https://humanbenchmark.com) Visual Memory (VM) and Reaction Time (RT) tests were used to assess participant’s baseline scores and scores 15min post treatment. Five male (19.0y ± 1.26) and four female (20.3y ± 0.43) college students volunteered to be participants in a three-week long cross-over, counterbalanced study. Blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were assessed before each test. Prior to initial assessment, participants took the RT and VM pre-test. Directly after the pretest, participants were randomly assigned one of three treatments: caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee, or no coffee. After a fifteen-minute stationery period, the RT and VM tests were administered again. A paired samples t-test showed a significant difference between the female VM pre (7.75 ± 1.26) and female VM post (9.00 ± 0.82) decaffeinated coffee treatment (p=0.015). Ultimately, there were no significant caffeinated responses to either test in this sample of college aged students.

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