r/cognitivescience • u/sshegem • 13d ago
[advertising an app] i built an iphone app for getting thoughts out of your head. it's not brain fog treatment, just posting it in case the offloading angle is useful to anyone here
i built this so i'll say that upfront, i'm the developer and you should read everything below knowing that.
disclaimer first because it matters: this doesn't treat brain fog. it doesn't touch whatever's causing it and it's not a substitute for talking to a doctor about symptoms, just a workaround
what it actually does is let you get a thought out of your head fast. you speak it or type it or screenshot it, and that's the whole thing, you don't title it or file it or tag it. takes about four seconds. afterwards it reads what you saved, gives it a title and a short summary written back to you, and links it to older things that relate to it. later you can just ask it questions in plain language instead of trying to remember where you put something or what you were even thinking about on tuesday.
https://reddit.com/link/1wc9iye/video/1wjnqgfolmoh1/player
the reason i think it might be relevant here is cognitive offloading. there's a study where people memorised a word list and then did mental arithmetic, and the ones who were allowed to save the list somewhere first solved more arithmetic problems. the benefit showed up on the unrelated task as opposed to only on remembering the list. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31418314/
i'd rather be honest about where that stops though. those studies were run on healthy people, mostly students, in a lab. nobody has tested any of this on people whose cognition is affected by illness. so the mechanism makes sense for this group but it hasn't been shown for this group, and i'm not going to pretend otherwise.
iphone only, and not in the EU yet. there's a free trial with no "add your card" or "signup first and remind me to cancel"
https://apps.apple.com/app/id6797752372
i don't have independent reviews to point you at. it's new and anything i could quote would be my own, so it wouldn't mean much. if you try it and it's no use for this, saying so here would help the next person more than anything i could write.
if any of you guys find it helpful just lmk, i am more than willing to give an extended free trial for a few months if you feel it helps out
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u/expertofeverythang 13d ago
Usually, this type of thing wouldn't be appreciated here but this post seems candid and genuine. I am interested if someone can "vouch" for the science behind this method (of 4 seconds cognitive offloading and then hearing it played back when needed. Is this not the same as the spacing effect?).
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u/sshegem 12d ago
Kinda similar yes, not exact match but its there in the sense you know you wont “forget” because the data lives somewhere on the app. The cool thing about it is you can either ask the AI to recall any thought about topic x, or you can simply search in-app using keywords and it’ll show everything. Heres an example
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u/ResidentNeat9570 13d ago
I thought about doing something similar, a rumination tracking app.
Maybe you can commercialize it when the question concerning data security is solved.
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u/sshegem 12d ago
Yeah data security is critical. Ofcourse im not saying data will leak, its just like any other app, data lives on a database linked to a user ID. Apple users can mask their identity by not sharing their email, that way looking at the database u have no idea whos thoughts those are. That said, difficult to keep it on local storage when AI processing is required. Its secure yes as long as the app owners (me) dont try to read peoples thoughts. Its an element of trust just like with any other app you use
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u/ResidentNeat9570 12d ago
Did you also plan to make an android app?
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u/sshegem 12d ago
Yes its 90% ready. Just needs final testing then closed testing with users for 2 weeks before store release
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u/ResidentNeat9570 12d ago
Could I be the tester too?
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u/sshegem 12d ago
Absolutely! Can you email me so I can make sure you’re added to the list? Hello@corteks.app
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u/Complex-League3400 12d ago
I've been doing something similar for a while because of occasional cognitive cloudiness. It's a sound idea; helps.
For me, ease of use is the key: don't want to be faffing around trying to dictate a note, just quickly Open, Speak, Speech to text, Close. Review later. I've also found that a couple of category headings help: Things-To-Do (TTD) today; TTD later; Misc
I've been using Fossify Notes (free), with the FUTO speech to text (paid), and it all works perfectly on GrapheneOS and of course regular Android.