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Eye Tracking, Cortisol, and a Sleep vs. Wake Consolidation Delay: Combining Methods to Uncover an Interactive Effect of Sleep and Cortisol on Memory

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The early bird does not get the worm: time-of-day effects on college students' basic cognitive processing.

Philip A Allen¹, Jeremy Grabbe, Ann McCarthy

¹Department of Psychology, The University of Akron, AOH 44325-4301, USA. paallen@uakron.edu

The American Journal of Psychology

|December 25, 2008

Summary

Cognitive performance, including executive functioning and processing speed, is better in the afternoon and evening for college students. Time of day did not impact semantic or episodic memory recall.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology

Background:

Cognitive performance can fluctuate throughout the day.
Understanding diurnal variations in cognition is crucial for academic and professional settings.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the impact of time of day on various cognitive functions in college students.
To determine if specific cognitive domains show performance differences across morning, afternoon, and evening testing sessions.

Main Methods:

A neuropsychological and cognitive assessment was conducted on 56 students.
Participants were tested at three different times of day.
Cognitive performance was measured for executive control (fluency), processing speed, semantic memory, and episodic memory.

Main Results:

Fluency and digit symbol task performance were significantly better in the afternoon and evening compared to the morning.
No significant differences in semantic or episodic memory performance were observed across the different testing times.
Performance improvements in the afternoon/evening were consistent regardless of testing order.

Conclusions:

Optimal executive functioning and processing speed for college students may occur in the afternoon and evening.
Time of day does not appear to influence semantic or episodic memory performance in this population.
These findings suggest a potential chronotype effect on certain cognitive abilities, irrespective of individual time-of-day preference.