I’ve made it known to most people that I can drive 100 straight hours with only bathroom breaks if I have some chewing gum. Well, make that about 14 hours at most. Chewing gum helps me concentrate.
And it helped with school, too, despite Sister Luke’s objections.
Which brings us to this: Dr. Kenneth Allen, an NYU dentistry professor, conducted a study on CD-ROMs being as effective as lectures in teaching dental anatomy. In order to fund the study, a friend suggested Dr. Allen contact Wrigley’s. The company was looking to do a study on learning and chewing gum. As reported in the Feb. 9 New Yorker magazine, the study showed that chewers scored a B- on average on the written exam and the non-chewers had only a C+, on average.
The good doctor, of course, insisted that the gum be sugarless.
The findings seem to be just good fun to me, though. The difference between a B- and a C+ could be attributable to the amount of time a student spends brown-nosing a professor (which would necessitate some gum wouldn’t it?).
But I think chewing does exercise your head area. And as we all know the best ways to keep your mind from going to mush after age 25 are exercising your brain (chess anyone?); your body (a little golf?) and getting enough sleep.
Which reminds me. It’s 11:10. I better go save some brain cells.