5 ms·

Is there any kind of learning that improves performance on other tasks? (What about language? What about if the 'other tasks' include learning?)

eutectic 9y ago
There is some evidence that meditation can improve cognitive performance.
- Godel_unicode 9y ago
  I was actually just looking for scholarly research on this subject, link?
  - fny 9y ago
    If you dig around, you'll find a lot of studies that are focused on a particular outcome (e.g. effects of mindfulness on the Stroop test, effects of mindfulness on athletic performance.) The quality of these studies is, of course, all over the place. Most of the research seems to come from journals dedicated to mindfulness in some capacity. For example, would you trust a study done by PhDs at reputable universities if they published in "The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine"[0]? The best research I ever found was a metastudy in Clinical Psychology Review: "Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings"[1] concludes that there's enough evidence that further investigation is warranted. There's also a lot of downstream research (citing articles) from both publications that are worth investigating. Transferability though, is still an open question. Even in this meta study, the author's admit that certain types of mindfulness training may be beneficial to certain outcomes. So perhaps you'll be more mindful and less distracted, but you won't be any "smarter." [0]: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2007.7022 http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2007.7022 [1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581000173X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581...
ForHackernews 9y ago
There is some preliminary evidence that a training task called "dual n-back" may improve working memory performance. Good working memory is beneficial for a wide variety of cognitive tasks. http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/ http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/
adamsea 9y ago
Learning to play an instrument and play music and learning a foreign language are both supposed to be quite good for you, mentally speaking.

eutectic 9y ago

There is some evidence that meditation can improve cognitive performance.

Godel_unicode 9y ago
I was actually just looking for scholarly research on this subject, link?
- fny 9y ago
  If you dig around, you'll find a lot of studies that are focused on a particular outcome (e.g. effects of mindfulness on the Stroop test, effects of mindfulness on athletic performance.) The quality of these studies is, of course, all over the place. Most of the research seems to come from journals dedicated to mindfulness in some capacity. For example, would you trust a study done by PhDs at reputable universities if they published in "The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine"[0]? The best research I ever found was a metastudy in Clinical Psychology Review: "Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings"[1] concludes that there's enough evidence that further investigation is warranted. There's also a lot of downstream research (citing articles) from both publications that are worth investigating. Transferability though, is still an open question. Even in this meta study, the author's admit that certain types of mindfulness training may be beneficial to certain outcomes. So perhaps you'll be more mindful and less distracted, but you won't be any "smarter." [0]: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2007.7022 http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2007.7022 [1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581000173X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581...

ForHackernews 9y ago

There is some preliminary evidence that a training task called "dual n-back" may improve working memory performance. Good working memory is beneficial for a wide variety of cognitive tasks. http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/ http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/

adamsea 9y ago

Learning to play an instrument and play music and learning a foreign language are both supposed to be quite good for you, mentally speaking.