The idea that a pill can enhance cognitive ability is both intriguing and scary. It sounds a bit unnatural, after all, knowledge obtained from books and lecture halls feels much more natural than one acquired from a pill.
Modafinil Australia improves performance on simple tests of cognition, but its effects are more mixed on complex tasks. On the RAT task, for instance, modafinil reduces flexibility and marginally impairs elaboration.
Focus
Achieving cognitive excellence requires that you focus on one task and disregard external stimuli competing for your attention. This ability is called selective attention. Your skill at focusing influences the rate and quality of learning, practice, preparation, and performance.
Focusing is the most important mental skill associated with performing to your potential consistently. All of the other mental skills and perspectives on the Wheel of Excellence are directed toward empowering you to enter this fully focused performance zone consistently.
Your ability to control distractions and negative input is the key to achieving a positive, constructive focus on any task or performance at any time. Refining your ability to quickly refocus in a productive direction when distracted or setbacks occur is also critical to performing to your potential.
Decision Making
Decision-making is crucial for achieving goals and solving problems in personal and professional contexts. The tutorial explains that effective decision-making requires a process of gathering information, understanding the impact of the alternative options, and following through with the chosen solution.
Whether it’s an easy choice like what to have for dinner or a more complex choice that can have long-term consequences, good decision-making involves understanding the options and their benefits and costs. It also includes identifying the risks involved and avoiding common decision-making traps.
The first step in the process is recognizing the problem. This is known as descriptive knowledge and can be acquired through observation. The second stage is coming up with potential ideas for a solution, which is called procedural knowledge.
Concentration
Increasingly, modafinil (Modalert 200 mg) is used by individuals who want to focus on one task for a long period and achieve cognitive excellence. The drug has been proven to be effective in improving cognitive performance and facilitating memory processes. It is often prescribed for people who have ADD/ADHD, jet lag, and fatigue from long working hours. It is also popular among high school students, examinees for new career development, and athletes.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that modafinil improves cognitive performance and enhances vigilance in humans and animals. It has been shown to increase accuracy in a logical reasoning test (Pigeau et al, 1995) and in a letter-number span task (Gill et al, 2006).
In addition, modafinil improves response inhibition in schizophrenia (Turner DC, Clark L, Dowson J, Pomarol-Clotet E, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ, 2004b). These results indicate that modafinil acts to optimize cognition by enhancing central catecholaminergic systems.
Motivation
Modafinil can improve alertness and motivation in healthy individuals and is also known to reduce apathy and increase functional outcomes and adherence to treatment in neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. However, the cognitive enhancing effects of modafinil outside of laboratory settings have to be carefully investigated.
For example, one study found that participants taking 200 mg of modafinil performed better on a non-verbal test of creativity than those taking a placebo. However, this improvement was mediated by a drug-drug interaction in which modafinil increased between search errors (the number of mistakes made while searching for an answer).
This raises the question of whether improving performance on cognitive tasks with stimulants can increase motivation – after all, if someone is forced to work at a highly alienating job to afford healthcare for their children, does taking a smart pill make it any less psychologically aversive?
