Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
Br J Psychol. 2013 Aug;104(3):339-46. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.2012.02124.x. Epub 2012 Jun 21.
Although the facilitative effects of chewing gum on free recall have proved contentious (e.g., Tucha, Mecklinger, Maier, Hammerl, & Lange, 2004; Wilkinson, Scholey, & Wesnes, 2002), there are strong physiological grounds, for example, increased cerebral activity and blood flow following the act of mastication, to suppose facilitation. The present study manipulated resistance to mastication, that is, chewing four pellets versus one pellet of gum, with the assumption that increased resistance will accentuate cerebral activity and blood flow. Additionally, chewing rate was recorded for all participants. In a within-participants design, participants performed a series of immediate free recall tasks while chewing gum at learning (one or four pellets) and recall (one or four pellets). Increased chewing resistance was not associated with increased memory performance, despite consistent chewing rates for both the one and four pellet conditions at both learning and recall. However, a pattern of recall consistent with context-dependent memory was observed. Here, participants who chewed the equivalent number of gum pellets at both learning and recall experienced significantly superior word recall compared to those conditions where the number of gum pellets differed.
虽然咀嚼口香糖对自由回忆的促进作用一直存在争议（例如，Tucha、Mecklinger、Maier、Hammerl 和 Lange，2004；Wilkinson、Scholey 和 Wesnes，2002），但是有充分的生理学依据假设这种促进作用的存在，例如咀嚼行为后大脑活动和血流量增加。本研究通过操纵咀嚼的阻力来进行，即咀嚼四颗胶丸与咀嚼一颗胶丸，假设增加阻力会增强大脑活动和血流量。此外，还记录了所有参与者的咀嚼速度。在一个被试内设计中，参与者在学习（一颗或四颗胶丸）和回忆（一颗或四颗胶丸）时咀嚼口香糖，完成一系列即时自由回忆任务。尽管在学习和回忆时，一颗和四颗胶丸条件下的咀嚼速度都保持一致，但增加咀嚼阻力与记忆表现的提高没有关联。然而，观察到一种与情境相关的记忆模式。在这里，在学习和回忆时咀嚼相同数量胶丸的参与者在单词回忆方面的表现明显优于那些在学习和回忆时胶丸数量不同的条件。
