PSY 325 Research Report

Research Report

Ashford University

PSY 325

Research Report

Introduction

In this research report, I am going to examine the effects that chocolate has on memory. Understanding the relationship between chocolate and memory is important because chocolate is widely known as a type of unhealthy junk food that is not particularly good for your health ((Turner & Kadow, 2010). However, current research reports claim that individuals who eat chocolate regularly score 40% higher on a memory test than those who rarely or never eat chocolate (McDowell and Bradley, 2015). I feel that chocolate does, in fact, hold memory aiding properties, and expect that this study will produce evidence to prove this theory. The purpose of this study is to determine if chocolate has the ability to improve memory. The hypothesis of this study is that when an individual is given chocolate before performing different memory tasks that individual will be able to recall more information than they would have if they were not given the chocolate. The Null hypothesis indicates that it does not matter if an individual eats chocolate or not before taking a memory test, because chocolate alone cannot increase an individual’s ability to recall information. I believe that this is a one-tailed hypothesis due to the fact that the information collected all points to the result that chocolate does have a positive impact on one’s memory function. In examining the effects that chocolate has on memory recent research conducted by Jones and Wilson (2011), indicates that individuals scored significantly higher on math tests after eating chocolate just two hours before the test was administered. Another research study conducted by Wong, Hideki, Anderson, and Skaarsgard (2009) indicates that women can recall more information on a memory test than men after eating chocolate. This study is important because chocolate is one of the world’s oldest comfort foods can be found to have a positive effect on our well-being than we can once again indulge without guilt (Jensen and Jacobs, 2012).

Methods

Design

Participants in this study were required to participate in a series of memory tasks. Memory tasks were provided by the Think Tank Computer Game Company (2017), designed to measure their ability to recall information. In the first group, the participants were required to eat 2oz of chocolate two hours prior to completing these tasks (dependent variable), while the second group did not receive any chocolate but completed the same set of tasks (independent variable). Both groups completed a computer-generated memory game that lasted for approximately 5 minutes, a computer-generated lecture test that required participants to recall five words that were given at the beginning of a 10-minute lecture, and during the final test, participants were given 10 minutes to recall the names of at least 3 people in their group.

Participants

This study consisted of 50 men and 50 women who were randomly selected from a larger population. Participants were assigned to groups based on the color of shoe that they were wearing. For example, individuals who were wearing red, yellow, blue, and black shoes were assigned to the experimental group and would receive chocolate, and those who were wearing orange, green, grey, and white shoes were assigned to the control group and would not receive any chocolate. Each group consisted of a mixture of men and women with 50 participants in each group

Procedure

Each group was given the same series of memory tasks which lasted approximately 25 minutes. Upon completion of the tasks, test scores were collected, and test results were then calculated and compared between the two groups.

Data Analysis

Scores for the series of memory tasks were measured by the amount of information that was correctly recalled by each participant in both groups, and an independent t-test was used to determine whether or not the individuals who received the chocolate exhibited more memory recall than those who did not receive chocolate.

Results

The statistical test that was used for this study was the independent t-test. The independent t-test was chosen because the only interest in this study is determining whether or not chocolate has an effect on memory and the fact that the experiment only requires that two groups were tested. The Independent t-test value was t .05(99) = 3.43; p < .05, which indicates that the Null hypothesis will be rejected due to a small pvalue. This result implies that the difference being a product of chance is less than 0.05. These results indicate that chocolate does, in fact, have a positive effect on memory.

Discussion

The hypothesis stating that chocolate aids in memory has shown to be correct judging by the findings of the research conducted, therefore the Null hypothesis will be rejected. The results from this study also match research conducted in other studies as well, such as, the research conducted by Jones and Wilson (2011), which stated that individuals did better on math test when given chocolate two hours before the test, and another study by Wong, Hideki, Anderson and Skaarsgard (2009), which stated that women did better on memory test than men after consuming chocolate.

Limitations

There are a few limitations connected to this research study. One of the limitations includes the amount of chocolate one may need to eat in order for memory to show significant improvement, future researchers may want to distribute different amounts of chocolate to participants in order to measure just how much chocolate it would take to show significant memory improvement. Also, length of time is a factor in this study participant’s spent roughly 25 minutes to complete a series of three memory tasks; however, future researchers may want to study the effects that chocolate has on the memory over the course of a longer period of time. Lastly, while this research study seems to point in the direction which favors the fact that chocolate will aid in memory function, perhaps future researchers can narrow the gap further by choosing a sample for which all participants share similar IQ scores. This would be a good way to rule out intelligence as a factor. In this research study, it was found that eating chocolate does have the ability to enhance memory. I have found that individuals who eat chocolate two hours before completing memory tasks tend to fare better than those who do not. However, in any case, individual intellectual ability is still a factor.

Conclusion

Writing this hypothetical research report was somewhat difficult in that it requires one to pay attention and think critically about even the smallest detail. Trying to write a false report that is required to seem as though it is the product of real-life findings is not an easy task. This gives me whole new respect for those whose job it is to carry out actual research reports. This experience will definitely affect how I view future research, I think that I will be more appreciative of the information now that I have experienced all of the tedious work that is required in order for individual’s to have correct information on important issues, such as, health and safety among other things. I do feel that these experiences will provide me with useful skills that I will be able to utilize in my future career. This experience will allow me to better understand and communicate with my coworkers.

References

Jensen, H., & Jacobs, S. (2012). Comfort Foods That Boost Your health [Journal]. Journal of Healthy Comfort Foods, 1(2), 3-5.

Jones, J., & Wilson, J. (2011). Chocolate Can Improve Test Scores [Journal]. Journal of the Milky Way, 15(8), 228-232.

McDowell, T., & Bradley, H. (2015). Eating Chocolate Regularly Can Increase Memory by 40% [Journal]. The Hershey’s Journal of Science, 10(3), 45-50.

Turner, N., & Kadow, C. (2010). Top 20 unhealthy foods in the U.S [Journal]. The Journal of Unhealthy foods, 7(6), 17-21.

Wong, D., Hideki, J., Anderson, M., & Skaarsgard, V. (2009). Women Who Eat Chocolate Have Better Memories Than Men. The Journal of Chocolate Candy, 8(12), 123-126.

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