SMART DRUGS WORKING MEMORY , ADHD AND EINSTEIN -

In 2014/15 a 30 billion dollar FTSE 100 company specializing in smart drugs [ working memory and attention] was the takeover target of ABBvie the US Pharmaceutical giant . In her book Working Memory: The Connected Intelligence Tracy Alloway argues that Working Memory is a better test of ability than IQ . 'Working memory measures potential to learn and can be crucial in determining classroom and working life achievement. ' Unusually this concept can be quantified as a number. This number accounts for between 10% and 20 % of the WAIS IQ assessment . Significantly this number is not fixed . rnQ1 Why are smart drugs such big business? rnQ2 What do they do ? rnQ3 What issues do they address ? rnQ4 What has Einstein got to do with any of this ? Q1 - Answer - Smart drugs do not claim to make you smarter , not directly anyway . Instead they look to optimize what you already have . They aim to prepare your mind for the task of learning . Q2 - Answer - In layman's terms when someone is talking at you, you are compelled to listen , the talker crowds out your own thought's . A similiar issue occurs if you sub vocalize - [reading silently to yourself using an inner voice] , because you need to listen to sound of your own voice droning on and on. Smart drugs enhance your ability to focus, to process information and to hold that information in working memory .A better working memory translates into extra time to structure your ideas and form opinions .Enhancing you ability to think about what you are learning as you are learning it . rnQ3 - Answer - Smart drugs are designed to keep the rebellious self in check , to stop the mind wandering .In a traditional listen and learn setting .A lack of engagement . A lack of true two way interaction makes focusing difficult. After 3 days research tells us we only retain about 10% of what we hear. rnQ4- Answer - Einstein was born in 1879 and died in 1955 .rnBack then the smart drugs had yet to be invented and ADHD , dyslexia and high functioning autism spectrum disorders were not an available condition. Einstein is how we get to talk about smart drugs and not talk about us and them . If we set aside social engineering and private agendas . In public at least there is a consensus that seedling Einstein's should be the highest aspiration of any school , any job , any profession . Yet in his teens it is documented that Einstein's learning was so poor he was asked to remove himself from his first school . His family and family friends saw a spark so they mentored him in private and then dragged him back and tried again at a more progressive school. That school was founded by a Swiss educational reformer called Pestolozzi . I will state right now the alternative path Einstein chose is more of an add in , an overlay , but what could it be ! rnIf you have ever tried remembering a list of oral instructions through sub vocalized repetition while the speaker is listing them . You know that doing two things at once in the same channel can be very challenging . If you can't multitask you can't multitask , right ? Yes and No ! We do have multi channel minds. Let me explain.