Memory & Learning9 min read
Watching Lectures at 2x Speed: What It Costs You
A meta-analysis of 110 effect sizes gives a dose-response curve: near zero cost up to 1.5x, real but modest at 2x, large at 2.5x.
Read articleA RESEARCH-LED PUBLICATION
You didn't get worse at life. The system changed.
We read the research on what phones, feeds and AI do to attention, memory and learning, and report what it actually shows. Including when the answer is inconvenient.
Explore how digital life shapes the mind
Choose a topic to browse its research-led guides and articles.
Attention & Distraction
What phones, feeds and notifications actually do to attention, and which findings survived replication.
Explore topicMemory & Learning
What changes when notes, search, study tools and AI carry part of the thinking for us.
Explore topicAttention Design
How interfaces use ranking, defaults, autoplay and stopping cues to influence what we do next.
Explore topicNew here?
Start with the problem you recognise
We will point you at the research that speaks to it.
Latest articles
New research-led articles on the human mind under digital pressure.
Attention Design10 min read
The Duolingo Streak: What the Number Is Actually Doing
Duolingo has published no peer-reviewed research on streaks, and its own A/B tests put the effect at a fraction of a percent. What the independent literature actually shows.
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Memory & Learning9 min read
Reading on a Screen Versus on Paper: What the Evidence Actually Shows
Meta-analyses do find a paper advantage for reading comprehension. It is small, absent for narrative text, and may be a scrolling effect rather than a screen one.
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Attention & Distraction7 min read
Zoom Fatigue: The Famous Explanation Was Never a Study
The four causes of Zoom fatigue were arguments, not findings. The experiments have since been run. Here is what they confirmed and what they did not.
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Attention Design9 min read
Why TikTok Is So Addictive
What the recommendation system is documented to do, what the research measures, and why the word addictive is doing more work than the evidence.
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Memory & Learning7 min read
Digital Amnesia: The Term and the Evidence Behind It
Digital amnesia is a marketing term, not a diagnosis. Here is the research on what offloading memory to devices does and does not change.
Read articleResearch Standards
Every load-bearing claim is traced to a named source. Where a finding failed to replicate, we say so. Where the research does not settle a question, we say that instead of guessing.
Our research standards- Named sources
- Replication reported
- Uncertainty stated
Resources
A small, carefully chosen library
Alongside the articles, we keep a short library of books, tools and further reading relevant to attention, memory and digital design. Every entry is chosen on editorial merit, and any paid link is labelled as such.
Browse the library
The Weekly System
Human Operating System
The Weekly System
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