This Master’s thesis investigated the effects of short-term (5 min) and long-term (35 min) gum chewing on performance (reaction time and accuracy) in three cognitive tasks (the Simon task, N-back task, and Eriksen flanker task) and on subjective mood. 67 participants were assigned to one of the three groups: a long-duration group that chewed gum for 35 minutes (5 minutes before and 30 minutes during testing), a short-duration group that chewed for 5 minutes (before testing only), and a control group that did not chew. Performance was measured across two 15-minute blocks, and mood was assessed at three time points: before testing, between blocks, and after testing. While the main results showed no clear or consistent effect of chewing on cognitive performance, the application of robust statistical methods revealed that chewing significantly affected reaction time in the Eriksen flanker task and improved accuracy in the Simon task. Similarly, no general effect on mood was confirmed, although the short-duration chewing group reported significantly lower sleepiness at the end of the experiment compared to the control group. We conclude that under the conditions studied, chewing gum did not have pronounced benefits for cognitive performance on the selected tasks or for general mood. Further methodologically robust research with greater statistical power is needed.
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