I worry that I harmed the results by mentioning that I have meditated for cognitive benefit reasons, without a way to note that it wasn’t to deal with Akrasia. I wanted to answer truthfully, but at the same time the truthful answer was misleading.
Searched for a comment on this, found yours, and upvoted because I share the test design concern.… In my case I ended up saying “No” to all technique questions other than “Other”, despite having dealt in the past with something that might be called “akrasia” and also despite having taken vitamins, and tried therapy and meditation in the past.
I assumed, because of each “How well did X help with akrasia?” followup question that there was an implicit “Have you done X for akrasia?” whenever it asked about “doing X”, and I’ve never thought vitamins or therapy or meditation would help with akrasia and didn’t do them for that and didn’t track how they interacted.
Likewise, I’ve “other things to improve your mental functioning” that have nothing to do with akrasia, and, conversely, other things about akrasia which have nothing to do with mental functioning (e.g. Beeminder and LeechBlock).
I worry that I harmed the results by mentioning that I have meditated for cognitive benefit reasons, without a way to note that it wasn’t to deal with Akrasia.
If you didn’t record yourself as having akrasia, this seems like it’s still useful information. It can be interesting to compare “these are the things akratics try for cognitive self-improvement” and “these are the things non-akratics try for cognitive self-improvement,” and the survey didn’t specify to skip that section if you don’t consider yourself as having serious akrasia.
If you do consider yourself as having had serious akrasia, and meditated for unrelated reasons, then I’m not sure what I would respond there, although it seems like you might have some information about whether or not meditation helps with akrasia.
I worry that I harmed the results by mentioning that I have meditated for cognitive benefit reasons, without a way to note that it wasn’t to deal with Akrasia. I wanted to answer truthfully, but at the same time the truthful answer was misleading.
Searched for a comment on this, found yours, and upvoted because I share the test design concern.… In my case I ended up saying “No” to all technique questions other than “Other”, despite having dealt in the past with something that might be called “akrasia” and also despite having taken vitamins, and tried therapy and meditation in the past.
I assumed, because of each “How well did X help with akrasia?” followup question that there was an implicit “Have you done X for akrasia?” whenever it asked about “doing X”, and I’ve never thought vitamins or therapy or meditation would help with akrasia and didn’t do them for that and didn’t track how they interacted.
Likewise, I’ve “other things to improve your mental functioning” that have nothing to do with akrasia, and, conversely, other things about akrasia which have nothing to do with mental functioning (e.g. Beeminder and LeechBlock).
If you didn’t record yourself as having akrasia, this seems like it’s still useful information. It can be interesting to compare “these are the things akratics try for cognitive self-improvement” and “these are the things non-akratics try for cognitive self-improvement,” and the survey didn’t specify to skip that section if you don’t consider yourself as having serious akrasia.
If you do consider yourself as having had serious akrasia, and meditated for unrelated reasons, then I’m not sure what I would respond there, although it seems like you might have some information about whether or not meditation helps with akrasia.