How to boost your brain power - Insights from cognitive neuroscience.

Your working memory can only hold about four things. Discover how to turn this critical limitation into your greatest cognitive advantage.

#1about 2 minutes

Testing the limits of your working memory

A simple memory test reveals the surprisingly small capacity of human working memory, which is the bottleneck for conscious information processing.

#2about 2 minutes

A scientific framework for evaluating brain boosting methods

Effect sizes like Cohen's d provide a statistical measure to objectively assess the actual effectiveness of any neuroenhancement technique.

#3about 4 minutes

The myth of brain training for general cognitive improvement

While brain training makes you better at specific tasks, research shows these skills do not transfer to general cognitive abilities like reasoning or planning.

#4about 2 minutes

Examining the real effectiveness of smart drugs

Smart drugs like Ritalin, developed for neurological disorders, show only small cognitive benefits for healthy individuals and come with significant side effects.

#5about 3 minutes

Why electrical brain stimulation is not a magic bullet

Transcranial electrical stimulation has a very small overall effect and may only be beneficial when brain activity is already outside an optimal range.

#6about 4 minutes

The key to brain power is connecting to long-term memory

Instead of trying to expand working memory, the most effective strategy is to efficiently use its capacity by linking new information to existing knowledge.

#7about 1 minute

Brain hack one: Actively build knowledge connections

Deliberately creating connections between new information and existing knowledge through methods like mind mapping significantly boosts learning and performance.

#8about 2 minutes

Brain hack two: Improve focus by practicing monotasking

Multitasking severely reduces cognitive performance by splitting limited working memory capacity, so dedicating focus to a single task is a powerful enhancer.

#9about 6 minutes