I remember reading an article about how Cinnamon can positively effect one's reaction time. I remember that every year in tennis, the players on our team would chew cinnamon gum before our matches in hopes that it would help. We never really new if it helped or not, but tonight I'm going to conduct an experiment that will hopefully show some evidence towards supporting the idea or disproving it. Hypothesis: Cinnamon increases reaction time. Materials: Xbox 360 5 pieces of big red Procedure: -First, to ensure that I don't get false data, I'm going to play 5 games of SWAT as an initial control. This ensures that I get to my peak performance level before I begin the actual experimentation. -Second, I will play 5 more rounds of SWAT, still without the cinnamon gum. At this point I should be at my Average performance, so this should reflect my average K/D, which I will record and average -Third, I will play 5 rounds of SWAT, chewing a new piece of gum for each round. Results: (No Gum) Win/Lose, K/D Round 1: Win, 17/14 Round 2: Lose, 11/13 Round 3: Lose, 14/12 Round 4: Win, 18/12 Round 5: Win, 15/11 Average: Win, 15/12 (Gum) Win/Lose, K/D Round 1: Win, 13/9 Round 2: Tie, 22/21 -> See Note 1 Round 3: Win, 17/8 Round 4: Win, 19/16 Round 5: Win, 11/6 Average: Win, 16.4/12 Note 1: In this match, I was left 1 versus 4, so this data is sorta extenuating Conclusion: Cinnamon certainly seemed to have some effect on my performance. I'm sure that some amount of it was a placebo effect, but all the same, my K/D was definitely better, and on average, I scored more and died less. So I would say that while this experiment doesn't prove it, it definitely supports it. Unfortunately, there where many variables that I couldn't control, like difficulty of the people I faced, the maps I played on, lag, etc. However, I think that overall, this experiment was successful. But, will anyone find this interesting?
and just no. Reaction time is the speed it takes for a stimulus to happen, your body to encode what happened as bio-electric impulses between neurons, that message to be sent to your spinal-cord, then brain, interpreted by your brain, then back down into whatever appropriate muscle the brain deems necessary for the stimulus. On average human reaction time is .002 seconds or 2 milliseconds. You can train yourself to predict a situation to improve your reaction time for it but there is no outside product that will increase neuron speed
I suppose I shouldn't have wasted 3 hours on a rumor xD I probably should've googled it first where I would've found nothing about cinnamon. Oh well, 15 games of SWAT never hurts xD I did find this, however-
Don't be depressed. You've displayed an excellent ability to think up and execute scientific experiments. nice job, buddy.
That's definitely unsurprising. Caffeine is a stimulant, so I think that it would definitely have a good ability to decrease your reaction time, making you play better. Or you just got a game against people you could completely and utterly own
What I like about this thread is that you indirectly proved how much your mentality on a game factors in your performance. I firmly believe that true skill lies in your strategic mentality rather than your manual dexterity. This test just shows that your subconscious wanted to believe the gum had an effect so you became more focused on the game than usual.
Perhaps next time you conduct an experiment, be sure that none of the other players are chewing cinnamon gum. Otherwise it's not a well executed experiment... because results could be skewed.
I would definitely agree that the Placebo effect had something to do with my Data. If I really wanted accurate results, I would have to conduct a double-blind study on people who knew nothing about cinnamon and reaction time, in a controlled environment.