CogSci Millionaire

Ogi Ogas, a 35-year-old doctoral student from Boston University studying cognitive neuroscience, recently appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, putting his graduate studies in learning, memory, and decision-making to the test.

I used priming even more explicitly on my $50,000 question: “Which of the following acronyms represents an organization that does not include the word ‘Association?’” I quickly narrowed it down to ASPCA and NCAA. I was confident I knew what NCAA stood for, but the pressure of the hot seat caused my amygdala to rage and blaze, preventing me, in the moment, from being able to recall the final two words of the acronym. I tried priming the missing words of the acronym, reiterating “National Collegiate Uh Uh, National Collegiate Uh Uh,” over and over until my synapses finally fired off the complete pattern: “National Collegiate Athletic Association.” (…)

My neurohormones whipped from black misery to shining ebullience, saturating my brain in a boiling cauldron of epinephrine and endorphins. I gaped at the azure screen in front of me as the ultimate question coalesced in hot white font.

ARTICLE [“Who Wants to Be a Cognitive Neuroscientist Millionaire?”] (Seed)