EXCESS COFFEE CONSUMPTION IN SIMULATED COMPLEX WORK SETTINGS - DETRIMENT OR FACILITATION OF PERFORMANCE

Twenty-four managers who normally consume between 400 and 1,000 mg of caffeine per day participated in all-day quasi-experimental simulation s. In a crossover, double-blind design, they made complex managerial d ecisions either on treatment with their typical daily dose of caffeine or on treatment with 400 mg of caffeine in excess of daily consumptio n. The effect of caffeine treatment on various validated performance i ndicators was investigated. The impact of excess caffeine consumption was mild. Increased caffeine facilitated speed of response to incoming information but decreased utilization of opportunity, No significance was obtained for other measures of managerial effectiveness (such as activity breadth, strategy, and emergency response).