I just came across this in Live Science:
Bad Decision-Makers Lack Reasoning Skills
http://www.livescience.com/health/070522_decision_making.html
It further references this article:
Study Reveals the Logic Behind Our Irrational Brains
http://www.livescience.com/health/060803_irrational_brain.html
and this:
Smart People Choke Under Pressure
http://www.livescience.com/health/050209_under_pressure.html
The main thrust of the article is that we must work on our reasoning and decision-making skills. Many times, we believe that we have learned all that we need to in order to get by. But this article shows that many of us lack a solid background in critical thinking and so we fall prey to "hype", marketing, urban myths, and other mental shortcuts.
How do we protect ourselves? We must learn to think critically. We must learn to think like Biologists; like Scientists. One of my goals in starting this blog was to provide the basic knowledge that we can use to filter out some of the outrageous claims out there. We cannot accept the claims of so-called Trader's Coaches and Trading Psychology at face value. Instead, we have to look behind the facade and study real science.
I have an RSS feed from Science Daily and Live Science. They keep me up on recent findings in science and other, non-medical fields. Science Daily, in particular is very good in that it has a section entitled "Mind and Brain." These articles are brief and the layman can easily understand them. I also like logic puzzles as they stimulate the mind. And finally, I like to look at Braingle, The Skeptic's Dictionary and James Randi's site from time-to-time. Braingle has free logic puzzles to solve. There are other sites that provide "brain exercises," but they require a paid subscription.
In future articles, I will develop this theme further. For now, I wish to continue to lay a solid foundation of basic biological knowledge.
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About Me
- Dr Bruce Hong
- I am a Physician/Trader. I am appalled at the amount of misinformation and bogus "Pop Psychology" out there. I hope to provide factual information with which traders can effectively change their behaviors.
4 comments:
Hi
I just checked your site, you've really added a lot since that first post, I haven't checked since then. I just read all the posts, wonderful information, thank you so much.
I was wondering what your take is on memory enhancing vitamins. So far you've mentioned B-vitamins, L-Tyrosine, and also Glutamate (though not as a supplement, though it is available as such).
Do you have any recommendations for vitamins to take to increase mental performance?
Obviously Adderall works great, but it's not exactly a vitamin.
Thanks!
Matt
Thanks Matt. Actually, I think that proper diet should be sufficient. But I do take multivitamins, just to be sure.
As far a memory is concerned, exercise is beneficial. Both physical and mental. Aerobic exercise increases oxygen and blood flow to all parts of the body. And Alzheimer's research shows the benefits of mental exercises - problem-solving, memorization drills, social interaction, and play therapy. It's a case of use it or lose it.
Finally, avoid depressants like alcohol and tranquilizers if you want to maintain mental acuity.
Hi, thanks for the reply.
I couldn't believe how much alcohol affects memory, your recent posts were really enlightening. I'm going to stop drinking heavily when I do because of that, thanks! What about 1 drink a night, does that fare ok or not?
Supposedly 1 glass of wine a night can be 'healthy.' That's not true for the brain though, right?
Matt
Thanks Dude
I think that one or two drinks should not interfere with well-learned behaviors. As you point out, there may be a cardioprotective effect with that level of consumption. However, exceeding that level does seem to be associated with adverse health results.
My suggestion would be to limit yourself to one or two drinks if you're doing well. If, however, you are struggling and need to learn new skills and acquire new behaviors, then try abstaining for a while.
Hope this helps.
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