Gum Chewing Helps Students To Recall

When students take in information on a subject, they try their best to recall the information when it is time to be tested on this. Students recall this information by remembering certain things along with it.

For example, If someone had a hard time remembering the name of something, they might make a phrase about it so that when it is time to recall that a certain memory, they will better be able to by remembering the phrase they made along with the memory.

The brain is better able to recall things if it is being recalled in the same environment it was learned. If someone was to learn about geometry and they were doing it in a library, they would be able to recall it better in that same library than anywhere else.

The same thing works with chewing gum. This is a fact proved by different school professors in the country.  This works through memory association. Memory association is when the brain takes in information associated with something else like an action or environment. Therefore, if someone were receiving information on a lecture and chewing gum during this lecture, they would be able to recall the information better if they chewed gum when they needed to recall it. “This is mind blowing,” says Kettle Moraine student, Most of the time people don’t even know this happens to them or that this is what may spark the connection in their brain.

A study on this theory was tested and proved in Harvard about 10 years ago. Gum isn’t the only thing that can help with memory association. It can actually be anything that  student could be doing while taking in information. It could be something a student eats or drinks. Even writing in a certain colored pen would be able to trigger memory association. As long as it is something done while receiving information so it is associated with the received information. When it is time to recall, it is a guaranteed fact that it will become easier to recall needed information.

There was another study done in the university of Newcaste, that showed that chewing gum raises the heart rate, which increases the blood flow to the cerebral area. This can explain why there is a higher brain activity while chewing gum rather than not chewing gum. All of this information was tested in 2007 by Edward McLaughlin. He used wrigley’s gum for the experiment.

“I actually learned this in my psychology class and tested it myself to see if it would work and it actually did,” says Germantown student, Nicole Forthly. “I keep gum in my backpack so whenever I think something might be hard to remember, I chew on a piece of gum.”

“I think it’s really interesting that the brain works that way when you learn about stuff. It’s honestly amazing to think about,” says Germantown student Chris Thangish. “I have done a study on this in my psychology class. It’s so cool that we can associate other things with information to remember it better just by simply chewing a piece of gum. Good thing we are allowed to chew gum in school,” says Thangish.

Gum chewing, along with many more other things are proven to work to help students or anyone receive and recall information easier.

“Weather it’s chewing gum or drinking a certain drink, I’m going to do it whenever I study so I can recall it better on the day of the test,” says Forthly.