Abstract
Caffeine, a sympathomimetic drug which stimulates the adrenergic nervous system, was hypothesized to exert opposite effects upon performances of a perceptual-restructuring task (the Embedded Figures Task) at different stages of practice. Specifically, caffeine was hypothesized to impair performances of perceptual-restructuring tasks when the task is still novel in early trials; and to facilitate practice induced gains in task performance as the task becomes less novel. Sixty male undergraduates were studies. Each subject was tested on the Embedded Figures Task twice, in one of the following three sequences: caffeine-placebo; placebocaffeine; and placebo-placebo. Both hypotheses received statistically significant support.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler HF, Burkhardt WL, Ivy AC, Atkinson AJ (1950) Effect of various drugs on psychomotor performance at ground level and at simulated altitudes of 18,000 feet in a low pressure chamber. J Aviat Med 21:221–236
Broverman DM (1964) Generality and behavioral correlates of cognitive styles. J Consult Psychol 28:487–500
Broverman DM, Klaiber EL, Kobayashi Y, Vogel W (1968) Roles of activation and inhibition in sex differences in cognitive abilities. Psychol Review 75:23–50
Callaway III E, Stone G (1960) Reevaluating focus of attention. In: Uhr L, Miller JG (eds) Drugs and behavior. John Wiley and Sons, New York, pp 393–398
Dispensa J, Barrett ME (1941) The effect of amphetamine (benzedrine) sulfate on maze performance of the albino rat. J Psychol 11:397–410
Fleishman EA, Hemple WE Jr (1955) The relation between abilities and improvement with practice in a visual discrimination reaction task. J Exp Psychol 49:301–312
Florey CD, Gilbert J (1943) The effects of benzedrine sulfate and caffeine citrate on the efficiency of college students. J Appl Psychol 27:121–134
Goodman LS, Gilman A (1965) The pharmacological basis of therapeutics. The Macmillan Company, New York
Krechevsky I (1933) Hereditary nature of “hypotheses”. J Comp Psychol 16:99–116
Lashley KS (1917) The effects of strychnine and caffeine upon the rate of learning. Psychobiol 1:141–169
Rosenzweig MR, Krech D, Bennett EL (1960) A search for relations between brain chemistry and behavior. Psychol Bull 57:476–492
Skinner BF, Heron WT (1937) Effects of caffeine and benzedrine upon conditioning and extinction. Psychol Rec 1:340–346
Wechsler D (1955) Wechsler adult intelligence scale. Psychological Corp, New York
Witkin HA (1950) Individual differences in ease of perception of embedded figures. J Pers 19:1–15
Witkin HA, Dyk RB, Faterson HF, Goodenough DR, Karp SA (1962) Psychological differentiation. John Wiley and Sons, New York
Wooley DW, van der Hoeven T (1963) Alteration in learning ability caused by changes in cerebral serotonin and catecholamines. Science 139:610–611
Zieve L (1937) Effect of benzedrine on activity. Psychol Rec 1:393
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Eugene Casagrande participated in this study as an undergraduate Honor Student at the College of the Holy Cross.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Broverman, D.M., Casagrande, E. Effect of caffeine on performances of a perceptual-restructuring task at different stages of practice. Psychopharmacology 78, 252–255 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428160
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428160