Caffeine cravings impair memory and metacognition

Abstract

Cravings for food and other substances can impair cognition. We extended previous research by testing the effects of caffeine cravings on cued-recall and recognition memory tasks, and on the accuracy of judgements of learning (JOLs; predicted future recall) and feeling-of-knowing (FOK; predicted future recognition for items that cannot be recalled). Participants (N = 55) studied word pairs (POND-BOOK) and completed a cued-recall test and a recognition test. Participants made JOLs prior to the cued-recall test and FOK judgements prior to the recognition test. Participants were randomly allocated to a craving or control condition; we manipulated caffeine cravings via a combination of abstinence, cue exposure, and imagery. Cravings impaired memory performance on the cued-recall and recognition tasks. Cravings also impaired resolution (the ability to distinguish items that would be remembered from those that would not) for FOK judgements but not JOLs, and reduced calibration (correspondence between predicted and actual accuracy) for JOLs but not FOK judgements. Additional analysis of the cued-recall data suggested that cravings also reduced participants' ability to monitor the likely accuracy of answers during the cued-recall test. These findings add to prior research demonstrating that memory strength manipulations have systematically different effects on different types of metacognitive judgements.

Alcohol intoxication impairs recognition of fear and sadness in others and metacognitive awareness of emotion recognition ability.

“…That is, compared to those in the placebo condition, alcohol-intoxicated individuals had poorer ability to discriminate between their correct and incorrect emotion recognition decisions, indicating a reduced level of insight into their emotion perception ability. These findings are consistent with previous research from the memory literature showing that manipulations that reduce decision accuracy can also reduce resolution for metacognitive judgments (e.g., Bothwell et al, 1987; Deffenbacher, 1980; Hertzog et al, 2010; Palmer, Sauer, Ling, & Riza, 2017). These effects are also consistent with the notion that alcohol intoxication reduces the quality of information that participants are able to draw on when making confidence judgments about the accuracy of their emotion recognition decisions.…”

Effect Of Caffeine and Adrenaline on Memory and Anxiety in Male Wistar Rats

“…While many studies suggest that caffeine produces improvement in memory either in animal (Munawar, 2022;Villanueva-Garcia et al, 2020) or in human (Borota et al, 2014;Sherman et al, 2016;Hartney, 2020) models of learning and memory, other studies report that caffeine does not affect memory (Nehlig, 2010) or even its craving impairs memory (Palmer et al, 2017). Some studies reported that long-term consumption of caffeine could inhibit hippocampus-dependent learning and memory partially through inhibition of hippocampal neurogenesis (Han et al, 2007).…”

Acute Physical Exercise Can Influence the Accuracy of Metacognitive Judgments

“…A high FOK judgment would be made if a person cannot remember the answer to a question now but feels certain of recognizing the answer when seen in the future (e.g., from a list of options). Factors related to memory strength can have different effects on the accuracy of FOK judgments versus JOLs 21,41 ; hence, exercise might have different effects on these two types of judgments.…”