Sambeth Anke, Toth Monika, Blokland Arjan
Department Teaching and Innovation of Learning, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, Maastricht, 6200 MD, The Netherlands.
Department of Neuropsychology & Psychopharmacology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2025 Aug 5. doi: 10.1007/s00213-025-06864-1.
Surveys indicate that about 10-20% of students use medicinal drugs to improve their exam performance. Whether these drugs really improve exam performance has not been examined in an experimental setting yet. This study tested the effects of methylphenidate (MPH; 20 mg) on exam performance either by giving the drug before studying for an exam (day 1, acquiring new information) or before the exam was taken (day 2, retrieving the information).
For this study, a double-blind placebo controlled between-subjects design was applied. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups that were given treatment on the two days: Placebo-Placebo (n = 25), MPH (n = 24), Placebo-MPH (n = 26). The exam contained multiple-choice questions (factual knowledge and inference questions) and open questions (inference).
The data showed that MPH did not improve the exam performance on the three types of questions. In addition, the average grade did not differ between the three groups and the number of participants failing or passing the exam did not differ.
This is a first experimental study showing that MPH does not improve exam performance and should discourage students to take MPH during exam periods.
调查显示，约10%-20%的学生使用药物来提高考试成绩。这些药物是否真的能提高考试成绩尚未在实验环境中得到检验。本研究通过在考前学习（第1天，获取新信息）或考试前（第2天，检索信息）服用药物，测试了哌甲酯（MPH；20毫克）对考试成绩的影响。
本研究采用双盲安慰剂对照的组间设计。参与者被随机分为三组，在两天内接受治疗：安慰剂-安慰剂组（n = 25）、MPH组（n = 24）、安慰剂-MPH组（n = 26）。考试包括多项选择题（事实性知识和推理题）和开放式问题（推理题）。
数据显示，MPH并未提高这三种类型问题的考试成绩。此外，三组的平均成绩没有差异，考试及格或不及格的参与者人数也没有差异。
这是第一项实验研究，表明MPH不能提高考试成绩，应劝阻学生在考试期间服用MPH。
