Rabipour Sheida, Andringa Ronald, Boot Walter R, Davidson Patrick S R
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA.
J Cogn Enhanc. 2018 Mar;2(1):70-77. doi: 10.1007/s41465-017-0050-3. Epub 2017 Oct 27.
Enhancing cognitive function through mentally challenging exercises ("brain training") or non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) is an enticing yet controversial prospect. Although use of these methods is increasing rapidly, their effectiveness remains questionable. Notably, cognitive enhancement studies have typically failed to consider participants' expectations. However, high expectations could easily make brain-training approaches appear more effective than they actually are. We addressed this major gap in the literature by assessing the perceived effectiveness of brain training and NIBS in a series of surveys. Our results suggest that people are optimistic about the possibilities of cognitive enhancement, particularly through brain training. Moreover, reading a brief message implying high or low effectiveness of such methods can raise or lower expectations, respectively, suggesting that perceptions of brain training are malleable - at least in the short term. Measuring expectations in brain training and NIBS is important to determining whether these cognitive enhancement methods truly are effective.
通过具有心理挑战性的练习（“大脑训练”）或非侵入性脑刺激（NIBS）来增强认知功能是一个诱人但存在争议的前景。尽管这些方法的使用正在迅速增加，但其有效性仍然存疑。值得注意的是，认知增强研究通常没有考虑参与者的期望。然而，高期望很容易使大脑训练方法看起来比实际更有效。我们通过在一系列调查中评估大脑训练和NIBS的感知有效性，解决了文献中的这一主要空白。我们的结果表明，人们对认知增强的可能性持乐观态度，尤其是通过大脑训练。此外，阅读一条暗示此类方法有效性高或低的简短信息，可分别提高或降低期望，这表明对大脑训练的认知是可塑的——至少在短期内是这样。在大脑训练和NIBS中测量期望对于确定这些认知增强方法是否真的有效很重要。
