ESPEDIDO, HAZELYN M.

BSPSY 2-YB-3

JOURNAL CRITIQUE ON WITHIN-SUBJECTS DESIGNS

Lorraine Valladares et al. (2012) conducted a study about Effects of Caffeine on

Cognitive Tasks, where the researcher examine whether caffeine improves cognitive
performance in healthy individuals, a working memory n-back task was performed on
24 healthy subjects. The n-back working memory measure in cognitive neuroscience
was used to examine reaction time and accuracy levels. Under the placebo treatment,
an experimental study was conducted on the 1, 2, and 3-back tasks.The gap on this
study is that there is relatively limited literature on the effects of caffeine on healthy
people who do not have any medical issues. As a result, the goal of this research was
to find out if consuming a certain amount of caffeine can improve cognitive processes.

The twenty-four healthy non-smoking participants, ranging in age from 19 to 38

without any history of psychiatric disease. The research study design was a double-
blind, counter-balanced, placebo-controlled crossover, wherein every subject was put
through two drug tests: a placebo and 250mg of caffeine, separated by a seven-day
"wash-out" interval. The levels chosen were based on earlier studies that indicated
significant behavioral impacts at this dose, but still being moderate enough to avoid
adverse effects like nausea, which could skew the results. The N-back task is used
which is a continuous-recognition measure that presents stimulus sequences, such as
letters or pictures, and people judge whether each item in the sequence matches the
one presented n items ago. In this study, a single white consonant was presented for
500 milliseconds every three seconds in the middle of a black computer screen. At
each appearance of each letter of the alphabet, the letter case was switched. The case
of the letters was disregarded and was defined as matching. The purpose of switching
letter cases is to make participants remember letters based on their meaning rather
than their shape.
The findings stated that there was no substantial improvement in cognition, according
to the data results. There was no correlation between caffeine use and cognitive
performance. In 1-back and 2-back analyses, significant differences between caffeine
and placebo conditions were discovered. With n-back 3, however, the results were not
significant. It claims that this decrease in performance is related to content familiarity,
which is countered by coffee. As an overall result, when comparing the low-load
Working Memory test to the high-load Working Memory task, accuracy was higher
and response time was faster across individuals. According to the findings of this
experiment, alterations caused by caffeine consumption support the concept that
caffeine functions as a stimulant. Furthermore, it is impossible to verify that the
stimulant results in improved motor processes and performance. Caffeine had no
influence on performance in this study, suggesting that caffeine had no significant
effects on the cognitive tasks of individuals.

The authors suggested that broad investigations are needed, to confirm caffeine's
potential usefulness on certain cognitive functions and working memory. Assessment
would enable repeatability and the addition of a third session, resulting in a wider
range of scores. Along with social position, education, and demographics, the dual-
task nature of the n-back, such as matching, encoding, storing, updating, rehearsing,
and responding to demands, varies substantially between participants. This might
possibly be a concern. The sequence of events or neuronal processes involved in
accomplishing the Working Memory exercise are unknown. Despite response times
and accuracy levels can help to some extent, more testing is needed to account for
differences. Furthermore, this study added another perspective on the underlying
mechanisms.