Use Clothes to Improve Cognitive Performance

There are small things we can do with our bodies to improve brain function and cognitive performance in real-time. I have documented many of these techniques on the Cognitive Design blog and you can find them under the tag embodied cognition. Some examples:

  • Holding objects can improve certain types of reasoning and recall
  • Walking can improve thinking
  • Clenching muscles amplifies will power
  • Stepping back from a difficult situation can trigger higher cognitive functions
  • Feeling warm or cold primes our emotional judgments about other people
  • Swaying back and fourth can improve reflection
  • Making hand gestures can improve learning and recall
  • Short duration physical breaks (e.g. playing catch) between sessions improves conceptual learning
  • Body posture impacts how confident we are about our beliefs and thinking abilities.

So our minds work in part by the way we use our bodies. Now new research indicates that cognitive performance can also be tuned by the clothing we put on our bodies or  so-called enclothed cognition. For example:

“If you wear a white coat that you believe belongs to a doctor, your ability to pay attention increases sharply. But if you wear the same white coat believing it belongs to a painter, you will show no such improvement.”

Our cognitive performance improves when we believe we are wearing smart clothes!

I am interested to hear from readers that use clothes that they believe make them smarted. Could be tie, top or outfit you wear to perform well on a test or during an interview.  Please describe it and explain why it works.