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J Appl Behav Anal. 1987 Fall; 20(3): 225–234. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1987.20-225. | PMCID: PMC1286012 |
Effects of caffeine on classroom behavior, sustained attention, and a memory task in preschool children. R A Baer Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044. Abstract The effects of caffeine on the behavior of young children is an important issue, as children in our society consume considerable amounts of caffeine, primarily in soft drinks. This study investigated the effects of normative amounts of caffeine on the behavior of 6 normal children in a kindergarten setting. Using a reversal design, counterbalanced for order of conditions, children's behavior was examined during a baseline condition, a caffeinated beverage condition, and a noncaffeinated beverage condition. Measures included direct observation of off-task and gross motor activity, actometer readings of movement, a Continuous Performance Test, a Paired Associates Learning Test, and teacher ratings of classroom behavior. Results suggest that caffeine exerts only small and inconsistent effects on the classroom behavior of kindergarten children. These results cast doubt on the importance of caffeine as a variable controlling the classroom behavior of normal kindergartners. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (1.1M), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References. These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article. - AXELROD J, REICHENTHAL J. The fate of caffeine in man and a method for its estimation in biological material. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1953 Apr;107(4):519–523. [PubMed]
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