This might seem dumb, but is it allowed to chew gum while taking the LSAT? There is some pretty interesting research out there that says chewing gum helps one focus, make better and more rational decisions, avoid fight/flight mode, etc. etc. etc.
Thanks in advance!
Comments
And FWIW, why put yourself in a position to annoy other test takers? Why be **that guy** or even run the risk of it? And IMO it kinda sounds like gum is a crutch, as you've described. Those things you're trying to get out of chewing gum can be practiced/obtained in other, better, less oral-dependent ways.
All tips on how to improve on those things are also welcome!
"Those who chewed gum showed improvements in their working memory (the ability to hold on to and manipulate information for brief periods of time,) their episodic memory (the ability to retain information long-term,) and in their perceptual speed of processing (a general index of cognitive functioning.) The performance benefits, however, lasted only for 15 to 20 minutes after the gum had been chewed, and were not apparent when gum was chewed throughout testing.
The performance improvement was attributed to a simple idea: Chewing causes an increase in arousal – it helps wake you up. Research suggests that chewing increases heart rate, blood pressure, and cerebral blood flow, and that those changes persist for 15 to 20 minutes afterwards, which coincides with the “window of benefit” revealed in our study.
However, there is some evidence that the act of chewing may also require some of the brain power necessary for maintaining performance, especially on attentionally demanding tasks. So, for those participants who chewed gum throughout testing, the benefits of increased arousal were negated by the need to share brain power between the chewing process and the thinking process.
But, if the chewing is stopped before the testing begins, the benefits due to arousal are more apparent, albeit also time-limited."
http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/education-nation/commentary-chewing-gum-may-improve-test-scores-n21731
But there's also this, because, well, #science:
"Several studies have suggested that short-term memory is generally improved by chewing gum. However, we report the first studies to show that chewing gum impairs short-term memory for both item order and item identity. Experiment 1 showed that chewing gum reduces serial recall of letter lists. Experiment 2 indicated that chewing does not simply disrupt vocal–articulatory planning required for order retention: Chewing equally impairs a matched task that required retention of list item identity. Experiment 3 demonstrated that manual tapping produces a similar pattern of impairment to that of chewing gum. These results clearly qualify the assertion that chewing gum improves short-term memory. They also pose a problem for short-term memory theories asserting that forgetting is based on domain-specific interference given that chewing does not interfere with verbal memory any more than tapping. It is suggested that tapping and chewing reduce the general capacity to process sequences."
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17470218.2011.629054#.ValDV3iaLzI
Step 2: ???????
Step 3: Profit!