Goal of book To understand why our brains have limited capacity for processing information What effect it has on our everyday lives How we can stretch these limits with mental exercises

Fast pace created by technology Incessant distractions multitasking Simultaneous performance Central limitation: ability to retain information Capacity constraints Flynn effect Brain changes with practice Controlled vs. stimulus-driven attention stress Biased competition among neurons

Working Memory: = our ability to remember information for a limited period of time, usually a matter of seconds “The ability to keep information active for a short period, based on continual neuronal activity” (p47) Vital to numerous mental tasks from attention control to solving logical problems How we remember what it is we are to concentrate on

Controlling Attention Oculomotor delay response task—the “dot test” Monkey trained to fixate on an image of a cross directly in front of it A dot is then flashed on the periphery of the screen A few-seconds delay occurs & the cross disappears The monkey now has to direct its gaze onto the position where the dot was NOTE: This takes weeks for the monkeys to learn! NOTE: Working memory is needed!

Working memory and intelligent “At present, working memory capacity is the best predictor for intelligence that has yet been derived from theories and research on human cognition” (Suss) There is a strong correlation between the presentation of working memory tasks and problem-solving ability. The correlation is about 0.7. (Engle)