Many people take caffeine always, or never. But the evidence is clear: for some tasks, drink coffee -- for others, don't.
Caffeine:
- Impairs hippocampal neurogenesis and long term memory
- Narrows focus -- aiding short-term memory when the information is related to the current focus of thought, and making short-term recall more difficult when the information isn't related
- Increases short term recall of both true and false memories
- Increases short term memory and attentional control
- Increases memory retention and retrieval
So:
Use caffeine for short-term performance on a focused task (such as an exam).
Avoid caffeine for tasks that require broad creativity and long-term learning.
(Disclaimer: The greater altertness, larger short-term memory capacity, and eased recall might make the memories you do make of higher quality.)
At least, this is my take. But the issue is convoluted enough that I'm unsure. What do you think?
I was actually just thinking about bringing that up in the open thread. Is there a preferred term for the philosophy characteristic of LW? "Rationalism" does indeed have too many irrelevant associations, from the old-timey Platonic philosophy that we can get useful information about the universe without studying the universe, to the philosophy termed "Traditional Rationality" around here (not sure exactly what defines that, but I have a general sense), to those people who spend a lot of time on reversed stupidity.
If making up a new term is okay (assuming there isn't a preferred term already), I might suggest "neo-rationalism". That way, people will know right away that it has something to do with rationality, but they will have to ask what the "neo-" signifies instead of jumping to any conclusions about it.
Maybe we should call it "epistemonomy", because it's trying to be to epistemology what astronomy is to astrology, sort of.
Or "likelihoodratiomancy", because it's the only divination method that actually works.