Having trouble remembering phone numbers or a lecture? Try spitting out your gum.

A new British study suggests that chewing flavourless gum can interfere with short-term memory.

The research, published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, challenges the prevailing notion that chewing gum - at least when it's flavoured - is a performance enhancer that can boost brain power.

Some argue that gum improves concentration by triggering an increase in blood flow through the brain, said lead author Michail Kozlov of Cardiff University. But his team found that an oral activity such as gum chewing can interfere with the process that's normally used to remember verbal content.