For all I know it could mean the person gets to believe more in their capacity to do the hard tasks. Or it could mean that the person feels less distracted and more willing to engage. Or many other things... Am I missing something?
Iirc there were studies done trying to assess the same thing with regards to Adderall (aka amphetamine salts, which is used for adhd similarly to Ritalin). The researchers came to that exact same conclusion, that the drug didn’t actually make people smarter, but it gave them an illusion of being more capable, and they ended up performing better due to confidence.[0]
0. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03768...
You can see this in parents who marvel at how great their children are at x, seems to be how kids are pushed. If kids are designed to be pushed to develop their skill sets by the dopamine inducing praise it could be that these drugs work because they tap into that pathway.
Yet, i have had younger people join, that didn't really know how to play, get really good. Their talent: They were super fast. Track athelete fast. They knew nothing about soccer, but after a year or two of playing, they became better than the players that had been playing for over 10 years.
Their advantage: Sheer speed, and fast reflexes. At some point the mantra 'if you try hard enough you will became great', becomes sheer lie. Some people, with given the same amount of training, or even less, became much much better...
But, hey, the '10k' hour rule type of books that give false hopes do sell, so the fradulent authors will keep em churning.,
Goes a lot into the studies on the matter and he argues it they paint a pretty clear picture.