Author

Malva Waters

Date of Award

5-1-1990

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Caffeine is one of society's most widely used central nervous system stimulants. Most studies involving caffeine and memory have tested the recall of young subjects following acute administration of caffeine. This study was designed to determine the effects of chronic use of caffeine on memory for prose in young and elderly adults. Forty-nine young and forty-nine elderly subjects read four expository prose passages from the computer screen and orally recalled each story Recalls were tape recorded and later scored for presence of idea units Chronic consumption of caffeine had no significant effect on recall of prose passages. It is speculated that this result may be due to tolerance effects which develop with habitual caffeine consumption.

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