Background : Executive function is an umbrella of cognitive functions and has an important
role in medical students. Several researches show that caffeine improves cognitive function,
but the impact of caffeine on executive function is not well understood. Tower of Hanoi
(TOH) is one of the instruments that has been proved and popular to evaluate executive
function. Not like other standard executive function examinations, TOH has a different level
of complexity in every problem. Hence, TOH can be used for working memory, planning,
designing strategy, task’s coordination, monitoring condition and attention evaluation,
which all of that abilities are executive function’s components.
Objective : To observe the effect of caffeine in enhancing executive function on medical
students by giving 9 variations of TOH problem.
Methods : Experimental research towards 60 medical students of UNIKA Atma Jaya, 2012,
divided into two groups, 30 person in intervention group which get 40 mg of caffeine and 30
person in control group get placebo. Research has been done by single blinded technique.
Results : The average age of research subject is 20 years old and performance index 3,3.
This research proves that 40 mg of caffeine enhances learning and solving problem, seen
from total step (p=0,002), execution time (p=0,000) and speed (p=0,005) significantly in
intervention group than control group.
Conclusion : Caffeine has an impact to executive function. |