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PLACEBOS for Executive Function:
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Note: the self-experiment below is excerpted from (with minor modifications) p. 271 of Smarter Tomorrow. For more on the power of placebo to improve mental performance, read chapter 13, “Placebo on Purpose”. To run a full version of this self-experiment, follow the instructions for a 12-week program in chapter 4, "The Nuts and Bolts". The scholarly articles this self-experiment is based upon are cited at the bottom of this page.
The following experiment will compare the effects of two interventions on your executive function. In one intervention, you will wear a white lab coat and use “magic words.” The other intervention will be the same except no “magic words.”
Materials
Cost: Low ($0 to $50)
Complexity: Low
How to Customize Instead of a white lab coat, feel free to personalize: Is there a profession that seems sharper than a scientist or doctor to you? If that profession has a recognizable uniform or prop (such as a fountain pen, calculator, stethoscope, magic wand, glasses, etc.), wear it/hold it instead of the white lab coat.
Directions
Sources from the Endnotes of Smarter Tomorrow:
The following experiment will compare the effects of two interventions on your executive function. In one intervention, you will wear a white lab coat and use “magic words.” The other intervention will be the same except no “magic words.”
Materials
- Marbles (to make the test randomized)
- A timer
- Your performance-based executive function test (for examples, flip to the end of chapter 7, "New IQ" of Smarter Tomorrow).
- White lab coat
- Your Neurohacker's Lab Notebook where you'll record your experiment and your results (see chapter 5, "Organize to Motivate" of Smarter Tomorrow)
Cost: Low ($0 to $50)
Complexity: Low
How to Customize Instead of a white lab coat, feel free to personalize: Is there a profession that seems sharper than a scientist or doctor to you? If that profession has a recognizable uniform or prop (such as a fountain pen, calculator, stethoscope, magic wand, glasses, etc.), wear it/hold it instead of the white lab coat.
Directions
- Take the performance-based executive function test you’ve chosen for your daily tracking (for examples, flip to the end of chapter 7, "The New IQ"). Record your scores in your Neurohacker’s Lab Notebook.
- Check your randomization schedule to know which intervention you are supposed to do that day.
- Put on your lab coat.
- On days when you are supposed to, say the following magic words: “Clinical studies have shown significant improvement through mind- body self-upgrading processes. Wearing this lab coat will increase my executive function.”
- Do a 15-minute task that involves executive function (for example, assessing how yesterday went and planning today using Say to Do methods from chapter 12). At the end, record in your Neurohacker’s Notebook how well you feel your executive function task went (on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being poor, 3 being medium, 5 being perfect).
- Take the executive function test from step 1 again, still wearing the lab coat. Record your scores in your Neurohacker’s Lab Notebook.
Sources from the Endnotes of Smarter Tomorrow:
- Adam, Hajo, and Adam D. Galinsky. “Enclothed Cognition.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48 (4): 918–25, 2012. doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.02.008.