This diploma thesis carries the title "Caffeine, its effects on health and its consumption among students of selected secondary schools". In my diploma thesis, I am interested in how many students of selected secondary schools rely on stimulating effects of caffeine during their studies and how caffeine influences them. The key task of the diploma thesis is to find out at what level the knowledge of students of the first and final years of selected secondary schools are in the area of caffeine drinks and beverages, how much relevant information they have about caffeine influence on health and behaviour. Also, how many and what types of caffeine products the pupils most often consume. A questionnaire is used as a research tool to obtain this information. By analysing and comparing the data, I get interesting results that indicate a high consumption of beverages and caffeine-containing foods and show a lack of knowledge about caffeine. At the end of the practical part, I come up with a recommendation for a lesson in Health education, which should be devoted not only to caffeine, its sources and products containing caffeine, but also to its consumption by young people, the risk of addiction and prevention. KEYWORDS Coffeine, effects, health, history, students

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:18:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gustavo Teixeira.pdf: 502529 bytes, checksum: 0badfa331efd29c54624e82d8098ac77 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-11-24 / The present study researched the effects of the reinforcement history under DRL or FR schedules upon the response under FI schedule and the possible implications of the consummatory response in these schedules. Twelve university students from different courses, except from the Psychology school, took part in this research. The subjects were set in 4 groups and submitted to six sessions with 40 reinforcements each. Members of 2 groups were initially exposed to a FR 40 and the members of the other two groups to a DRL 20-sec. Later on, all participants were exposed to three sessions of FI 10- sec. One consummatory response was made a requirement in the six sessions only for the participants of one of the two groups exposed to a FR 40 and for the participants of one of the two groups exposed to DRL 20- sec. The subjects presenting a history of reinforcement under FR (with or without a consummatory response) showed a high rate response standard and relatively constant during the third session exposed to FR 40. All the participants, except one, kept a performance at a high rate of responses when exposed to a FI schedule. Nevertheless, two participants of the FR 40 Group with consummatory response showed a trend to decreasing the response rate throughout the FI exposition sessions, suggesting that the consummatory response may have contributed to the reduction of the response rates. The participants presenting a history of reinforcement in DRL (with and without consummatory response) showed response standard at low and constant rate during the third session of exposition to DRL 20-sec. These participants kept having a performance at low rate of responses when exposed to FI, however the response rate increased remarkably. For those participants members of the Group with no consummatory response, suggesting that the consummatory response may have contributed to the increase of the response rate for the groups with DRL history. Concerning the effects of the history, observing the final performance in FI 10-sec. from the participants with a history of reinforcement under FR and from the participants with a history of reinforcement under DRL, one can see that the general response rate was higher for those participants with a history of FR than for those with a reinforcement history under DRL. These results suggest that the participants behavior along the third session under FI 10-sec. was under the control of the current contingencies and showed effects of the reinforcement history / O presente estudo investigou efeitos da história de reforço em esquemas de DRL ou FR sobre o responder em esquema de FI e possíveis implicações da resposta de consumação nesses esquemas. Participaram desta pesquisa 12 estudantes universitários de diversos cursos, com exceção do curso de Psicologia. Os participantes foram distribuídos em 4 grupos, submetidos a seis sessões com 40 reforços cada. Os participantes de dois grupos foram expostos inicialmente a FR 40 e os participantes dos outros dois grupos a DRL 20 seg. Subseqüentemente, todos os participantes foram expostos a três sessões de FI 10 seg. Houve a exigência de uma resposta de consumação nas seis sessões somente para os participantes de um dos grupos exposto a FR 40 e um dos grupos exposto a DRL 20 seg. Os participantes com história de reforço em FR (com e sem resposta de consumação) apresentaram um padrão de responder em taxa alta e relativamente constante durante a terceira sessão de exposição a FR 40. Com exceção de um, todos os outros participantes continuaram com um desempenho em taxa alta de respostas quando expostos a FI. No entanto, dois participantes do Grupo FR 40 com consumação apresentaram tendência de diminuição das taxas de respostas ao longo das sessões de exposição a FI, sugerindo que a resposta de consumação pode ter contribuído para a diminuição das taxas de respostas destes participantes. Os participantes com história de reforço em DRL (com e sem resposta de consumação) apresentaram um padrão de responder em taxa baixa e constante durante a terceira sessão de exposição a DRL 20 seg. Estes participantes continuaram com um desempenho em taxa baixa de respostas quando expostos a FI, entretanto, a taxa de respostas aumentou acentuadamente. Para os participantes do Grupo com resposta de consumação o aumento na taxa de respostas, quando expostos a FI, foi ainda mais acentuado do que para os participantes do Grupo sem resposta de consumação, sugerindo que a resposta de consumação pode ter contribuído para o aumento das taxas de respostas para os grupos com história em DRL. Em relação aos efeitos de história, ao observar o desempenho final em FI 10 seg dos participantes com história de reforço em FR e dos participantes com história de reforço em DRL, verifica-se que a taxa geral de respostas foi mais alta para os participantes com história de FR que para aqueles com história de reforço em DRL. Estes resultados sugerem que o comportamento dos participantes na terceira sessão sob FI10 seg estava sob controle das contingências atuais e mostrava efeitos da história de reforço