Summary of Breakfast Helps Kids Handle Basic Math, by Marcia Wood

In “Breakfast Helps Kids Handle Basic Math Study Suggests”, Marcia Wood explains research conducted by scientist Terry Pivik, which proves that children who eat breakfast are able to solve math problems faster than those that don’t. Wood begins by saying how even people who may know a lot about the human brain are impressed with how much eating breakfast can influence a child’s ability to do math. To prove this is true, she found that scientist Terry Pivik from University of Arkansas completed a research project with 81 children to show that those who ate breakfast, were able to solve math problems much quicker than those that didn’t. Pivik performed this specific research by using EEG (electroencephalographic) sensors to record brain activity while solving math problems that took just 1 second to complete. They carefully recorded the children’s sleep the night before to make sure that each child had a full 8 hours of rest. Two test were given, half of the children were given breakfast after the first test while the other half were not. The results were just as suspected. The data showed that “children who skipped breakfast had to exert more effort to perform the mental math that the tests required and to stay focused on the task at hand. In contrast those who ate the breakfast that we provided used less mental effort to solve the problems, stayed more focused on the tests, and improved their scores in the post-breakfast test” says Pivik.
The results were the same as other tests that have proven this, however. The University of Arkansas was much more unique. This was the first study with this age group that controlled the morning meal and used EEG technology to monitor brain activity while solving math problems.