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Mental Response to Added Thiamine

Six Figures

Department of Educational Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York

During three periods of time between May 1941 and September 1944, the effect was observed of daily supplementation of the dietary of an orphanage with 2 mg of thiamine per child.

Thirty-seven to fifty-five carefully matched pairs of children were used, one member of each pair receiving thiamine and the other an indistinguishable placebo. No participant, child or adult, had knowledge concerning the group to which any child belonged.

Measurements of performance included acuity of vision, skills at games, reaction time, reading, arithmetical processes, memorizing and forgetting, intelligence tests and other recognized measures in current use by psychologists. The schedule of tests was adapted to the length and circumstances of each period.

In the first period of 6 weeks the vitamin fed group made superior average gains in performance in every one of the eighteen test tasks. The individual variations in gains within each group were within the limits of probable error in the case of seven of these tasks.

In the second period of 1 year, fifteen activities were used and the vitamin fed group again surpassed the control group in gains in performance in every activity. The superior gain of the vitamin fed group was statistically significant for eight of the fifteen activities.

In the third period of 1 year, without knowledge of the participants twenty pairs of children were continued with the same regimen as in the previous year while twenty pairs were so reversed that those who had received thiamine now received a placebo and vice versa. The unreversed pairs continued to show superiority of average performance for the thiamine fed group in all eleven tests used; the reversed pairs showed reversals of superior gain in seven activities but failed to show adverse effects of withdrawal of thiamine in intelligence tests, educational achievement, reaction time, height or weight gains.

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				N. W. Shock Chapter VII: Physiological Factors in Development Review of Educational Research, December 1, 1947; 17(5): 362 - 370. [PDF]