May I propose an experiment (and report back) involving two big strong mugs of coffee, one decaff, one not, and both unfamiliar brands so you can’t reliably taste the difference?
I actually wasn’t expecting any effect from the coffee. I hardly ever drink coffee, so I haven’t formed a mental association between the taste and smell and increased alertness. It’s hard to say without a blind test, of course, but it’s still puzzling to me.
I like the experiment but note that the findings would be confounded somewhat. Heavy coffee drinkers have been found to get an increased performance on tasks requiring alertness just from the smell! They get another boost once the caffeine actually gets digested and flows to the brain but it may be difficult to establish a negative finding if both the decaff and caffeinated seem to give an effect.
Agreed… but we want to test how much his reaction to his coffee is dependent on the experience of drinking coffee versus it’s actual caffeine content, so I’d suggest he takes it reasonably close to how he normally takes it, to get the same trigger. We already know he doesn’t react to a caffeinated drink (his tea) that doesn’t taste like his usual coffee.
In other words, if he normally takes it black with no sugar, lots of cream and sugar might break the experiment.
May I propose an experiment (and report back) involving two big strong mugs of coffee, one decaff, one not, and both unfamiliar brands so you can’t reliably taste the difference?
I actually wasn’t expecting any effect from the coffee. I hardly ever drink coffee, so I haven’t formed a mental association between the taste and smell and increased alertness. It’s hard to say without a blind test, of course, but it’s still puzzling to me.
I like the experiment but note that the findings would be confounded somewhat. Heavy coffee drinkers have been found to get an increased performance on tasks requiring alertness just from the smell! They get another boost once the caffeine actually gets digested and flows to the brain but it may be difficult to establish a negative finding if both the decaff and caffeinated seem to give an effect.
Probably both with lots of cream and sugar is a more reliable way of masking any taste difference.
Agreed… but we want to test how much his reaction to his coffee is dependent on the experience of drinking coffee versus it’s actual caffeine content, so I’d suggest he takes it reasonably close to how he normally takes it, to get the same trigger. We already know he doesn’t react to a caffeinated drink (his tea) that doesn’t taste like his usual coffee.
In other words, if he normally takes it black with no sugar, lots of cream and sugar might break the experiment.