Feature

A recent study demonstrates that yawning is directly linked to seasonal climate conditions.

Andrew C. Gallup and Omar Eldakar conducted this study; to determine whether yawning is a thermoregulatory, body temperature controlling, behavior. Participants of Tucson, Arizona were given a survey during the months of June andFebruary to measure yawning and sleep patterns. Based on the results, yawning was occurring more frequently during the lower temperatures of the year.

During an interview held at the University of Arizona College of Medicine on Friday October 7, 2011, Andrew Gallup described the findings of his study. “I believe that the results of this study further proved that contagious yawning can also be affected by non-social factors, such as climate conditions.” Gallup feels that further studies measuring contagious yawning should be done with neutral climate conditions, to strengthen the findings from his study.

During the study, the experimenters would leave the participants when they gave them the survey. Gallup sees that this is vital, “Because research suggests that participants are less likely to yawn when they are being observed the experimenters immediately walked away from the participants after they agreed to take the survey and intentionally avoided directing their attention toward them until it was completed.” While the participants were answering their survey questions, the experimenters were stationed in the shade. They measured the humidity and temperature of the air with a digital thermometer/hydrometer.

The survey was a yawning stimulus because, there were 20 pictures of people yawning and they were followed by three questions about the participants yawning and sleep patterns. Only 34.4% of the participants claimed that the exposure to the contagious yawning stimulus made them yawn. All participants were over the age of 18, and they were found pedestrians walking outside in public. Gallup says, “The study had practically equal numbers of male and female participants. The sex of the participants in this experiment did not affect the rates of yawning.” Yawning rates did not differ between men and women in this study, so sex does not play a part in contagious yawning.

Although, a portion of the participants in this study claim to be affected by the yawning stimulus in the surveys they were given, there was a huge difference between the amount of yawning during the summer and the winter. The data in the study was analyzed by using a Chi-square test to measure the differences in yawning frequency. Based on the graph made up from the data found in the Chi-square test, the proportion of yawning in the winter was .45 and in the summer it was .25. That shows that yawning decreases by nearly 50% in the summer time! The temperature changes in the colder seasons increase the amount of yawning. When temperatures finally begin to pick up during the toastier summer seasons, yawning levels tend to cease and people feel more awake.

Even though the cause for contagious yawning is still under debate, the findings obtained for this study showed that the mechanism responsible for yawning might be associated with thermoregulatory physiology. This can be further proved and understood with more studies and research done, in regards to how thermoregulatory behaviors of the body are linked to yawning. Don’t be fooled in believing that yawning always comes with stress and tiredness. It may just be a change in the weather.

References

Cute Baby Yawning. Digital image. 123 Wallpapers. Simrandeep Singh, 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. <http://123wallpapers.info/?p=525>.

Gallup, Andrew C., and Omar T. Eldakar. "Frontiers | Contagious Yawning and Seasonal Climate Variation | Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience." Frontiers | Peer Reviewed Articles - Open Access Journals. Frontiers Media, 22 Sept. 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. <http://www.frontiersin.org/evolutionary_neuroscience/10.3389/fnevo.2011.00003/full>.

Information Page

Interview took place 12PM Friday October 7 201

Partner: Anya Ashley

Partner’s Study: Contagious Yawning and Seasonal Climate Variation, Frontiers

My Study: The Growing Impact of Pediatric Pharmaceutical Poisoning, The Journal of Pediatrics

Partner Communication: Both my partner and I responded to email communications and were able to schedule and complete our interviews on time. YES.

Activity Reflection:

I thought this activity was helpful, I just wish we were able to see other students do the role-playing. Maybe there were some things we lacked or could have improved on during our interview, and watching others do it would have been beneficial. I learned that there are many vital questions a journalist has to ask the scientist. I also learned that a scientist must come completely prepared to answer basic questions, without using intense scientific language.

The role-playing helped a lot in understanding what types of things will interest an audience, from the journalist’s perspectives. It was easier to ask questions that I knew I would find interesting, rather than just finding the facts and summarizing the findings from the study.