A cup of coffee in the morn­ing makes us feel more alert and focused for several hours. Previ­ous research showed that caffeine improves memory for an hour or so after we drink it.

A new study indicates that caffeine can improve recall abilities the next day as well.

Dr. Michael Yassa and his col­leagues reported in the January issue of Nature Neuroscience the results of an investigation involving 60 human volunteers who studied 200 pictures.

Five minutes after viewing the pictures, the volunteers either took a pill containing 200 mg of caffeine or a placebo.

The study subjects then returned to the laboratory 24 hours later to be tested again.

The subjects who ingested caffeine were better at remembering and pointing out the pictures that were similar but a little different than ones they had seen the day before.

This kind of pattern recognition memory is important for everyday memory tasks like recalling where we park our car in a lot.

When the researchers increased the volunteers’ dose of caffeine to 300 mg, they found no improvement in this memory ability, and the volunteers noticed more side effects.

The bottom line: That one cup of java may be all you need to remember where you parked your car or left your keys.