I would really like to see the effect of attention span increasing drugs on these types of experiments, for example what happens when you give the low performers Adderal or Vyvanse? does their performance improve? What about drugs that expand working memory like Provigil? Is there any research on this that you (the HN collective) recommend?

So I think there is the following problem with the experiment as you propose: are these low performers simply deficit in attention management or broader faculties as well. If the former, there's decades of data indicating that clinical level difficulties with attention can indeed be treated (hint: it's called ADHD). That's because ADHD is often in large part a gap between intentionality and action (that gap being executive function, which in "that would be fun, but I should do this" scenario makes the this branch choice possible).

Do people actually use provigil off label to improve memory? That seems like a pretty iffy approach, sleeping wold probably work better!

I know more than a few med students who take Provigil to help them study.

does it help them?

They certainly think it does.

And if the drug does improve performance, does the improvement remain after the drug leaves the system? (Did it help exercise pathways that remain stronger, later?) Or, does it make performance even worse in the absence of the attention-stimulant?

tl;dr To get smarter, you should struggle through the whole article and not skip to the tl;dr.

Has anyone found meditation to be useful as a way to increase their attention span? I'd be curious to hear the results. It seems that practicing the ability to focus on nothing may improve your ability to focus on one thing. I have an admittedly shallow understanding of what meditation entails, though.

The times I have truly "passed the threshold" during meditation I have successfully been able to concentrate and be calm for hours afterwards. Usually the rest of the day.

The times that this has occurred have been few and far between and this was when I was meditating every day for at least 10 minutes. Sometimes up to 30. It's hard to do, especially at first, but yes I found it to be effective.

Then I had kids and didn't sleep for a year and anytime I tried to meditate I fell asleep. I still do it from time to time but it's rather cumulative. The more daily the practice, the more useful it will become IMO.

I was always under the impression that meditation involved focusing on NOTHING.

Not that it wouldn't help.

The n-back task is a working memory task that has been correlated with increasing fluid intelligence in one paper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back

Thanks for the reference, which includes the neutral point of view, "The paper's methodology has been criticized by David Moody[5]. He draws attention to the fact that different tests were used to evaluate the control and test groups. Due to the way in which the tests were administered, he also questions whether they were valid tests of fluid intelligence."

K. Anders Ericsson has achieved astounding results through training in "digit span," long reputed to correlate well with "general intelligence."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory

"Whereas most adults can repeat about seven digits in correct order, some individuals have shown impressive enlargements of their digit span--up to 80 digits." The further discussion at this reference about whether the tested task correlates with anything else of interest would apply as well to the n-back task.

Do you mean the dual n-back task? Jaeggi et al? That one was interesting because it appeared the gains were transferable.

If you read NurteShock you already know how crucial the ability to focus is. The great news is, you can train this ability and not only increase your Intelligence & Attention Span, but also your game score. http://www.drjonathanreed.co.uk/wordpress/category/working-m...

so next time you kill a few bad guys, or conquer another empire (on your screen), do it knowing that you just got a little more intelligent.

What is NurteShock?

Probably a typo for "NurtureShock", a recently published book: http://www.amazon.com/btw-you-can-put-anything-here-or-even-...

> If you read NurteShock you already know how crucial the ability to focus is. The great news is, you can train this ability and not only increase your Intelligence & Attention Span, but also your game score. http://www.drjonathanreed.co.uk/wordpress/category/working-m....

Interesting piece, thanks for sharing. You sound like you read on the topic quite a bit - got any other recommendations for things to check out?

Wooha, where to begin; I did my thesis on neuroeconomics, one of the best resources I found was on Squidoo http://www.squidoo.com/neuroeconomics (a lot of ads)

If you are generally interested in the topic of improving your brain, the top site I found is http://www.sharpbrains.com/

pretty good for understanding the brain's effect on behavior is http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/

Those 3 sites are already quite a lot. If you decide this is not enough, just mail me, I am happy to help.

PS: lecture from berkeley http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details_new.php?seriesid=...

Ayn Rand covers this in her book "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology". In her theory, focus (or selective attention) is the essence of free-will (the ability to direct the object of our consciousness). Focus also (not surprisingly) plays a crucial role in the formation of concepts (or classes), the main theme of the book. She describes intelligence as the capacity to deal with wide abstractions and long conceptual chains (my paraphrase).

This probably makes sense for convergent thinking, but there's also divergent thinking. Is the author effectively saying that intelligence = convergent thinking? If so, he is pretty much saying creativity is worthless and obedience is paramount.

I knew making myself get back into reading was a good thing.

Further evidence that books may well be a lot better for us than we might otherwise imagine these days. Notice classically, smart people read a lot of books? Maybe they just develop the ability to focus really well (well, in addition to misc. facts and words they pick up)