> The results showed that on average, the drugs didn’t affect the chance of a participant finding the solution to a knapsack problem. Contrary to perhaps many s

> The results showed that on average, the drugs didn’t affect the chance of a participant finding the solution to a knapsack problem. Contrary to perhaps many students’ expectations, however, participants tended to perform worse after taking one of the drugs, packing a lower total value of items. I have to assume that everyone who has taken these drugs could have predicted this, yeah? No one gets this drug and thinks "I will literally be more intelligent", they get them so that they can grind out 12 hours of work without being distracted by anything. 12 hours of work at 90% efficiency is way better than ~2 hours of work at 100% efficiency. > Not only that, but they spent substantially more time working on their solution while on the smart drugs than they did after taking the placebo. In fact, participants spent almost as much time on the easiest presentations of the knapsack task while on methylphenidate (Ritalin) as they did on the hardest instances of the task after taking the placebo, without any corresponding improvement in performance. As expected! One of the "traps" you have to be aware of when taking these medications is to be sure to not overfocus on things that don't matter. > The results have clear implications: healthy people who take these drugs hoping for cognitive gains may work harder and longer at a problem, but without any benefit. No way lol that is a ridiculous conclusion to draw. Without any benefit? Seriously? The benefits are massive.