Ep 28: me think me smart me think smart
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me think me smart me think smart
In this episode, we examine the evidence for increased intelligence do to the placebo effect.
This study found no placebo effect. In fact, expecting to do better caused people to do worse.
Cognition and the Placebo Effect – Dissociating Subjective Perception and Actual Performance
In this article, being told you had a good night’s sleep, regardless of how you felt about it, helped you do better with math and word play.
‘Placebo Sleep’ Can Improve Cognitive Skills
This paper treats the placebo effect in studies of intelligence as a problem, but through differing recruitment methods, it did produce one.
Placebo effects in cognitive training
And last, we have a paper that proposes one possible mechanism whereby a placebo could improve performance in tasks that deal with attention and working memory. They tried it and it worked, both for positive and negative effects, depending upon what the study participants were told.
The placebo effect on psychomotor performance and working memory