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Cognitive Enhancement: An Everyday Event?
Author(s) -
White Norman M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/002075998400484
Subject(s) - psychology , event (particle physics) , cognition , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , quantum mechanics , physics
The hypothesis presented here has three parts. First, cognitive enhancement is not only possible, but is an everyday reality. Several common substances, including caffeine and sugar, improve the retention of new memories, a form of cognitive enhancement. Second, data from experiments on memory enhancement, taken together with estimates of the information‐processing capacity of the human brain, suggest that many individuals may already be functioning cognitively at or very close to the maximum level possible. If this is true then only relatively small enhancing effects would be expected. Third, the existing relatively modest instances of cognitive enhancement may represent what can be expected from this phenomenon.