About This Project

This study can help to uncover smaller stress factors that affect teens. Studying the effect of hearing gum chewing on student test scores and cortisol levels, a stress hormone, pertains to this topic. Cortisol levels show if hearing hum chewing causes stress. Comparing cortisol to scores informs if there is a correlation between the two variables. It is hypothesized that hearing gum chewing will significantly increase the stress levels of the students.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Teens' brains are very responsive to stress hormones (i.e. cortisol). Measuring salivary cortisol shows the stress of daily life, one being noise. Gum chewing is one of these stressors, and little is known of the effect on students hearing gum chewing. In one study, cortisol levels increased with participants who heard 90dBA noise, compared to the control. Other researchers were able to measure cognitive ability and cortisol, showing that higher cortisol levels correspond to worse scores on manufactured tests. So, connecting these topics, noise can trigger cortisol levels to rise, and cortisol levels rising can impact test scores negatively. This research inspired this proposed study, as similar procedures have been adapted to fit the high school classroom setting.

What is the significance of this project?

There is a growing rate of anxiety among teens, so finding sources of stress is imperative when looking for solutions to these issues. Students spend a lot of time stressing over school work, in and out of the classroom. Identifying smaller stressors that contribute to this "snowball effect" of anxiety may be as or more helpful than just identifying one main contributor to school stress. Misophonia is a condition involving noise and stress, where people have a negative autonomic response to certain noises. This condition can cause decreased academic performance. Perhaps gum chewing, which many people find bothersome, might have the same effect on stress and performance in school. If the hypothesis is supported, it is a simple and easy way to reduce classroom stress.

What are the goals of the project?

This research will occur during the school year, after materials have arrived. 24 students in an accelerated biology class will be given a short quiz. On this quiz day, students will separate into control and experimental groups. Salivary samples will be taken from students before and after the test. For the experimental group, a student uninvolved in the experiment will pretend to take the test while chewing gum with their mouth open. Salimetrics Assay Kits will be used to quantize the samples. A spectrophotometer will measure absorbance of light through samples. Data will be sorted into the experimental group versus control, comparing test scores and cortisol. Standard error as well as t-tests will be used. The data will be graphed in bar graphs.