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World Congress 2023 • Aug 11, 2023

How to boost your brain power - Insights from cognitive neuroscience.

Roland Grabner

Forget hyped smart drugs and brain-training apps. Cognitive neuroscience reveals that deliberate monotasking and intentional rest are the true scientific secrets to optimizing your working memory.

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#1 about 4 min

Testing the limited capacity of human working memory

A simple memorization exercise reveals that human working memory can only process four to five pieces of information simultaneously.

#2 about 3 min

Measuring cognitive enhancement methods using effect sizes

Understanding statistical effect sizes helps evaluate whether popular cognitive enhancement methods actually provide meaningful intelligence improvements.

#3 about 4 min

Evaluating the actual effectiveness of regular brain training

While regular brain training improves performance on specific practiced tasks, it fails to significantly increase overall working memory or general intelligence.

#4 about 3 min

Analyzing the impact of smart drugs on healthy adults

Pharmacological cognitive enhancers yield negligible working memory improvements in healthy people while posing short and long-term health risks.

#5 about 3 min

Assessing the results of electrical brain stimulation devices

Transcranial electrical stimulation offers minimal benefits for healthy individuals and requires abnormally low baseline brain activity to be truly effective.

#6 about 5 min

Boosting working memory through long-term knowledge connections

Connecting new information to an established long-term knowledge base efficiently frees up working memory capacity for complex problem-solving.

#7 about 2 min

Forcing the brain to actively map new connections

Deliberately mapping new concepts to existing knowledge through mechanisms like mind maps drastically improves information retention and cognitive performance.

#8 about 2 min

Improving cognitive performance through deliberate monotasking habits

Focusing on single tasks prevents working memory fragmentation and protects the brain against the uncritical acceptance of incoming information.

#9 about 2 min

Strengthening mental connections through deliberate unstructured free time

Removing cognitive stimulation allows the brain to naturally consolidate memory connections and generate creative ideas without requiring active effort.

#10 about 4 min

Conclusion and audience questions on cognitive enhancement practices

Maintaining healthy sleep patterns and balanced nutrition provides more reliable overall cognitive support than seeking artificial brain enhancements.

Matching moments

2:00 min

Managing mental load in a digital and intangible workplace

Rudi Bauer Rudi Bauer +1 · Cappuccino with HR

2:29 min

Overcoming distraction and information overload in digital environments

Rudi Bauer Rudi Bauer +2 · Cappuccino with HR

3:17 min

Developing physiological resilience to manage technological overload

Christian Wastlhuber Christian Wastlhuber +4 · WWC Europe 2026

3:03 min

Managing mental capacity and resistance for essential daily habits

Natan Silnitsky Natan Silnitsky · WWC 2024

2:40 min

Practicing strategic pauses when missing free time

Josefin Hahn Josefin Hahn · Europe 2026 Virtual

1:47 min

How workplace interruptions compound cognitive debt

Elisa Schön Elisa Schön · WWC Europe 2026

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