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Ritalin and Other Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs Probably Won’t Make You Smarter
Scientific American: On Monday, I put up a post on whether we would ever be able to upload our brains into a computer, merging ourselves into the great digital Singularity that would provide us with
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Why Aren’t We Smarter Already? Evolutionary Limits on Cognition
We put a lot of energy into improving our memory, intelligence, and attention. There are even drugs that make us sharper, such as Ritalin and caffeine. But maybe smarter isn’t really all that better. A
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The Science of Success
The Atlantic: In 2004, Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, a professor of child and family studies at Leiden University, started carrying a video camera into homes of families whose 1-to-3-year-olds indulged heavily in the oppositional, aggressive, uncooperative, and
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Psychologists Stress the Importance of Memory in Preventing Relapse after Therapy
Addictions, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder—such painful and harmful problems are recalcitrant to treatment. In the clinic, a person may suppress the association between the stimulus and the response—say, a bar with ashtrays and smoking—by learning
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Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect, Study Suggests
U.S. News & World Report: Practice is an essential part of gaining excellence in a specific skill, but to become truly great other qualities must come into play, such as IQ or working memory, according
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The risks of politeness: It has its place only to a point
The Windsor Star: Dr. Aidan Feeney has a few thoughts about politeness. Essentially, he thinks it has the ability to cost lives. “The more serious the situation, the more likely you are to be polite
