Archive for the ‘Cognitive enhancement’ Category

December 1st, 2010

Now that Baby Einstein videos have been shown not to help cognitive abilities at all, and the manufacturer has been forced to offer refunds, the shame-faced industry has responded by generating new videos that teach babies how to become champion athletes.

November 27th, 2010

The wildly popular videos/DVDs known as Baby Einstein were pitched by their manufacturer as a learning tool for infants, and were even endorsed in the State of the Union address by President George W. Bush. But as I wrote about at the time, there was no basis at all for the claim that watching these [...]

April 18th, 2006

Can low-amperage current delivered through electrodes taped to the skull improve cognitive performance, at least temporarily, in healthy people and stroke and dementia sufferers alike? So it would appear.

November 9th, 2004

Yes. It reduces the validity of the test, and puts test-takers at risk of developing substance abuse.

November 8th, 2004

No surprise here: stimulants improve your score on standardized tests. Kids taking the SATs and the LSATs have started to figure that out.