Max Wertheimer Minerva Center for Cognitive Studies, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 3200003, Haifa, Israel.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2022 Feb;239(2):455-463. doi: 10.1007/s00213-021-06016-1. Epub 2021 Nov 2.
Methylphenidate (MPH) and mixed D,L-amphetamine salts (MASs; Adderall) were previously found to have unreliable effects on judgment and decision processes.
We predicted that MPH and MASs have a specific effect of reducing heuristic responses, which should lead to increased performance on the cognitive reflection test (CRT). The CRT is considered to be a testbed for heuristic versus deliberative response modes.
We recruited a sample of 15,361 individuals using the Prolific Academic crowdsourcing platform. From this initial pool, our final sample consisted of 294 participants (125 MPH users and 169 MASs users) who conformed to the study criteria and completed the experimental tasks. Tasks were performed on days where participants were either medicated or not, allowing to assess the effect of medication status.
There was a strong positive effect of taking MPH on CRT scores (Cohen's d = 0.40) which was not qualified by frequency of MPH usage, ADHD symptoms, and demographic factors. There was also a somewhat weaker effect for MASs (Cohen's d = 0.07). No effects of MPH and MASs were recorded for risk-taking and numeracy.
The results indicate that MPH enhances decision-making in tasks where heuristic responses typically bias it.
先前的研究发现，哌醋甲酯（MPH）和混合 D，L-苯丙胺盐（MASs；Adderall）对判断和决策过程的影响不可靠。
我们预测 MPH 和 MASs 具有降低启发式反应的特定作用，这应该会导致认知反射测试（CRT）的表现提高。CRT 被认为是启发式与深思熟虑反应模式的测试平台。
我们使用 Prolific Academic 众包平台招募了 15361 名参与者。从这个初始池中，我们的最终样本包括 294 名参与者（125 名 MPH 用户和 169 名 MASs 用户），他们符合研究标准并完成了实验任务。任务在参与者服药或不服药的日子里进行，以评估药物状态的影响。
服用 MPH 对 CRT 分数有强烈的积极影响（Cohen's d=0.40），但不受 MPH 使用频率、ADHD 症状和人口统计学因素的影响。MASs 的影响也稍弱（Cohen's d=0.07）。MPH 和 MASs 对冒险和计算能力均无影响。
结果表明，MPH 增强了启发式反应通常会使其产生偏差的任务中的决策制定能力。
