Chewing gum moderates multi-task induced shifts in stress, mood, and alertness. A re-examination

Abstract

AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank Dr. Richard Stephens and an anonymous reviewer for their suggested improvements to the manuscript. 3 AbstractThe finding that chewing gum can moderate stress and mood changes following a multi-task cognitive stressor (Scholey, Haskell, Robertson, Kennedy, Milne, and Wetherell, 2009) was re-examined. In a repeated measures cross-over design, thirty participants completed a 20-minute multi-tasking stressor on consecutive days, both with and without chewing gum. Both prior to and post stressor, participants provided salivary cortisol samples and self-rated measures of stress, state anxiety, calmness, contentedness, and alertness. Contrary to Scholey et al. (2009), chewing gum failed to

The contrasting physiological and subjective effects of chewing gum on social stress

“…The present data do, however, generalise the moderating effects of chewing gum on subjective stress beyond cognitive-load stress (Scholey et al, 2009) to include social-evaluative stress (although it is unclear why such effects are found intermittently, e.g. Johnson et al, 2011;Torney, Johnson, and Miles, 2009). It is therefore, worth considering that social-evaluative stress and cognitive load stress represent qualitatively different experiences.…”

“…The contrasting effects of chewing gum on physiological and subjective measures are curious and suggest that cortisol changes may not always reflect perceived stress (a point mooted by Scholey et al, 2009; see also Johnson et al 2011, where the stressor produced contrasting effects). It should be noted that the accentuating effect of gum on cortisol excretion cannot be explained by differences in baseline cortisol for the two groups.…”

“…Uncertainty exists with respect to the extent to which chewing gum may attenuate stressinduced rises in cortisol secretion (Scholey et al, 2009;Smith, 2010;Johnson et al, 2011).…”

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AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank Dr. Lara Tucha for her comments on an earlier draft and the later comments from both Prof. Debra Zellner and an anonymous reviewer.

AbstractUncertainty exists with respect to the extent to which chewing gum may attenuate stressinduced rises in cortisol secretion (Scholey et al, 2009;Smith, 2010;Johnson et al, 2011).The present study used the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST: Kirschbaum et al, 1993), a task known to elevate cortisol secretion (Kudielka et al, 2004), in order to examine the moderating physiological and subjective effects of chewing gum on social stress. Forty participants completed the TSST either with or without chewing gum.

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The Multitasking Framework: The Effects of Increasing Workload on Acute Psychobiological Stress Reactivity

“…The focus of these studies, however, has been to assess the efficacy of non-pharmaceuticals as potential anxiolytics. That is, they have compared performance on and reactivity to the framework following acute administration of Melissa officinalis (Kennedy, Little, & Scholey, 2004), Salvia officinalis (Kennedy, Little et al, 2006), Valeriana officinalis (Kennedy, Pace et al, 2006), chewing gum (Scholey et al, 2009;Johnson, Jenks, Miles, Albert, & Cox, 2011) and multi-vitamin supplements (Haskell et al, 2010), with responses following a placebo administration. The placebo/control arms of the studies typically demonstrate consistent effects of multitasking stress on mood, specifically, increased reports in feelings of alertness and state anxiety and reductions in feelings of calmness and contentment.…”