Comment · Mon, December 10, 2012 · Ceretropic
How to take Ritalin correctly
What they were answering
ZombieChalmers · 5 points
This study showed that amphetamine did NOT improve cognition or memory in healthy adults, but merely made the subjects think they did better.
This is true, but it doesn't show all the important features of the research. IE low baseline performers tend to benefit, while higher performers tend to be hurt by it.
>Moderation of MAS effect by baseline performance
To determine whether MAS enhances cognition for some
people, with an effect that is moderated by baseline cognitive
performance, we first separated participants into two groups
according to whether their baseline performance was above or
below the median and then conducted a series of 2 (Drug: MAS;
Placebo) 2 (Baseline Performance: Below-Median; Above-
Median) 2 (Drug Order) 2 (Test Version Order) mixed-model
ANOVAs with repeated measures on the first factor for each of
the 13 cognitive performance measures (MANOVA was not carried
out because different participants fall in the upper and lower
groups for different measures). Significant interactions between
drug and baseline performance emerged on two measures: Word
Recall (F (1, 36) ¼ 4.78, p ¼ .04) and, replicating our earlier study of
MAS effects on this task (Farah et al., 2008), Embedded Figures (F (1,
28) ¼ 8.48, p < .01). There was also a marginal trend toward
significance for Raven’s Progressive Matrices (F (1, 29) ¼ 2.83,
p ¼ .10). In all three cases, the…
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Correct. It's all about balance with dopamine. Too much and your gains in focus turn to compulsions. Those with lower levels will see more improvement than those with naturally higher levels.
I would not suggest to someone that taking a dopaminergic stimulant before a test will lead to benefits, unless you actually have ADHD.