1. Brain Experiment Outline
1. Coffee. Consumed by millions of Americans a day and by far the most popular beverage.
We drink coffee for breakfast, with our friends, in the car on our way to work, it helps us
stay awake to study, and even keeps us warm. Coffee’s popularity stems from the fact
that it gives us the energy we need to get through our busy lives. And this the positive
affect of caffeine that we love. But what about the negative effects of caffeinated
coffee?
2. Previously documented research published by the [read titles…] have completed
experiments with findings that suggest caffeine impairs motor skills.
3. Such research concluded that parts of the brain affected by caffeinated coffee and
impairing motor skills are the frontal lobe, and the cerebellum,
a. Cerebellum controls fine motor skills and overall balance.
b. Frontal lobe oversees motor function
4. This brings me to my hypothesis [read hypothesis]
5. Now to explain my experimental design. Taking a total of 4 weeks, for Seven days per
week, I played white tiles 5 times a day and average those scores for each day.
a. Week 1:
i. I drank no coffee, this was my baseline or control group to compare with
experiment groups
b. Week 2:
i. I began drinking 8oz of coffee a day
c. Week 3:
i. Increased my coffee consumption by 16oz a day
d. Week 4:
i. returned to normal routine, where I drank no coffee
e. after each treatment and trial I recorded my data into a word document on my
laptop
6. I measured my motor skills by utilizing a free game app available on my iphone. White
Titles is a simple arcade game that requires motor skills. The goal of the game is to tap
as many black tiles to avoid white tiles, as you progress farther into the game the tiles
move faster, and the higher number of black tiles tapped on the higher the score
7. RESULTS
Results indicated that drinking caffeinated coffee decreased my scores on White Tiles. The
more coffee I drank the lower the score.
a. Comparing week 1 and week 4, I found interesting that my scores for the week 4
improved in comparison to week 1. This could be due to practice and my
repeated exposure to white tiles by the4th week.

2. b. Comparing week 3, where I drank 16 oz of coffee per day to week 2, I was
surprised to see that my scores had only decreased by about 500 points. I had
speculated that
c. Drinking twice as much coffee, I had expected to see a much larger decrease in
average scores, r a
8. Concerning limitations and assumptions, i was inconsistent with what time of day I
began testing. On some days I would begin my trails in the morning or evening, and
assumed that the time of day would have no effect on my scores, which may have been
incorrect.
a. I also wondered if my scores might have been influence by practice and repeated
exposure to white tiles.
9. In terms of additional studies, I would like to see the effects of different caffeinated
beverages (such as energy drinks and tea) have on motor skills, and how caffeine effects
memory or other cognitive skills like problem solving.