Caffeine expectancy, explicit and implicit memory performance among female nursing students: a placebo-controlled...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Nursing Education

Background:

• Nursing student memory is crucial for patient safety and skill acquisition.
• Caffeine's effects on memory are widely studied, but expectancy's role requires further investigation.
• This study investigates caffeine expectancy's impact on nursing students' memory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the association between caffeine expectancy and memory performance in nursing students.
• To assess memory performance in both morning and afternoon testing sessions.
• To determine if caffeine expectancy influences explicit and implicit memory.

Main Methods:

• 74 female nursing students were sampled.
• Participants were grouped into high- and low-caffeine expectancy groups.
• Memory was assessed using standardized tasks in morning and afternoon sessions, analyzed via ANOVA.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in explicit or implicit memory performance were found based on caffeine expectancy.
• Time of day did not significantly affect memory performance.
• No significant interaction was observed between caffeine expectancy and time of day.

Conclusions:

• Caffeine expectancy did not significantly influence explicit or implicit memory in this nursing student sample.
• Null findings warrant cautious interpretation due to sample size and expectancy manipulation limitations.
• Further research with refined methodologies is recommended.