Abstract
Psychostimulants like Adderall and Ritalin are widely used for cognitive enhancement by people without ADHD, although the empirical literature has shown little conclusive evidence for effectiveness in this population. This paper explores one potential explanation of this discrepancy: the possibility that the benefit from enhancement stimulants is at least in part motivational, rather than purely cognitive. We review relevant laboratory, survey, and interview research and present the results of a new survey of enhancement users with the goal of comparing perceived cognitive and motivational effects. These users perceived stimulant effects on motivationally-related factors, especially “energy” and “motivation,” and reported motivational effects to be at least as pronounced as cognitive effects, including the effects on “attention.”
Highlights
Stimulant medications such as amphetamine and methyphenidate have long been used by healthy individuals to enhance work performance
We assessed: (1) whether users reported positive effects on motivation-related functions; (2) whether this overall perception of motivational enhancement was greater than, less than, or equivalent to the overall perception of cognitive enhancement in the narrow sense, assessed by the cognition-related ratings; and (3) which particular functions within each category were believed to be significantly enhanced by these users
The most commonly used medications for cognitive enhancement, amphetamine and methylphenidate, seem to have limited effects on laboratory measures of executive function and learning in normal, healthy young adults. These drugs are widely used to enhance work performance by college students and others engaged in cognitively demanding work
Summary
Stimulant medications such as amphetamine and methyphenidate have long been used by healthy individuals to enhance work performance (see Rasmussen, 2008, for a history). These medications are currently widely used as study aids by college students in the US and Canada (Poulin, 2007; Smith and Farah, 2011) and, to a lesser extent, in many other countries (Sahakian and Morein-Zamir, 2007; Franke, 2011; Castaldi et al, 2012; Partridge et al, 2013), providing a non-hypothetical case in point for neuroethical analyses of cognitive enhancement. Based on our own failure to find a single drug effect across numerous measures of executive functions, memory, creativity, intelligence, and standardized test performance, we concluded that Adderall “has no more than small effects on cognition in healthy young adults” (Ilieva et al, 2013)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
