Diet, and the affects on human cognitive performance.
The aim of this project is to determine whether consuming breakfast affects the working memory capacity of a person.
Thank you for agreeing to take part in our research, it is important that the information you provide is correct and that the instructions are followed carefully.
All data collected will only be used for the purpose of answering the research question for our first year undergraduate project. Whilst personal questions will be asked, no participant will be able to be identified from the data collected. Participants are not to be under 18.
The questionnaire will ask participants their age group, gender, the type of breakfast consumed on the day of testing, how regularly breakfast is consumed during a normal week, units of alcohol consumed in the 24hrs prior to testing, the time the participant woke on the test day, the time breakfast was consumed, and how long before breakfast the last meal was consumed. The questionnaire will categorise the breakfast consumed; cooked breakfast, cereal or toast, fruit, caffeine drink only, nothing. The participants will also be asked to indicate whether a caffeine drink was consumed along with the other breakfast categories.
Participants will be asked to perform a memory span test taking only a few minutes to complete. The first phase is completion of a questionnaire and a memory span test, which should be taken 45 minutes prior to breakfast, a phase one completion code will then be issued for you to note down. The second phase will require the code prior to a second questionnaire and memory span test, which should be taken 45 minutes after breakfast has been consumed. If no breakfast is consumed then the tests should be taken 45 minutes apart and as early in the daily routine as possible.
Many theories of cognition propose that there is a short-term or working memory system that is able to hold a limited amount of information for a short period of time. The memory span experiment is one measure of working memory capacity. In this experiment, participants are given a list of items and asked to recall the list. The list length is varied.
If you have already completed phase 1 of this test and have been given a code to continue with phase 2, please enter your code in the text box below and click continue. Otherwise, leave the text box blank and click continue to begin phase 1.
By clicking the continue button, you are agreeing to participate in this study.