THE SCIENCE

Built on research, not vibes

Every design decision in Gist Library — the length, the audio, the cheat sheets — maps to a finding in the attention and memory literature. Here's the receipts.

🧠 5 research pillars📐 Format follows findings🚫 No medical claims

PEER-REVIEWED FOUNDATIONS

Why audio gists work for ADHD brains

Gist Library isn't built on vibes. Every format decision — length, audio, repetition, completion — maps to a finding in the attention and memory literature.

1971 · 2006🧠

Dual-coding: hear it + see it

Combining auditory and visual input creates two memory traces instead of one — doubling the routes your brain can use to recall an idea.

→How we use it: every Gist ships as narrated audio with synced text, so wandering ears and eyes land on the same idea.

Paivio, A. — Imagery & Verbal Processes; Mind and Its Evolution

2007⏱️

The 10–25 minute attention window

Focused attention peaks within roughly 10–25 minutes before cognitive fatigue sets in — and the ADHD curve is steeper still.

→How we use it: summaries average ~15 minutes and focus sessions cap at 25 — calibrated to the curve, not against it.

Wilson, K. & Korn, J.H. — Teaching of Psychology, 34(2)

1885 · 2006🔁

Spacing beats marathons

Short, repeated exposures reliably outperform long single sessions for retention — the classic forgetting-curve result, replicated for over a century.

→How we use it: the short-format library makes revisiting effortless — spaced repetition without a study schedule.

Ebbinghaus, H.; Cepeda, N.J. et al. — Review of Educational Research, 76(3)

2009✨

Dopamine & the completion effect

ADHD brains show lower baseline dopamine signalling; finishing a task delivers the reward pulse that makes the next start easier.

→How we use it: everything is sized to END. Every finished Gist is a real completion signal — not another half-read tab.

Volkow, N.D. et al. — JAMA, 302(10)

2015🎧

Body doubling, in your ears

Task performance improves with a co-present “other” — a well-documented effect in ADHD clinical literature.

→How we use it: a narrator’s voice acts as a digital body double — our focus sessions are built around it.

Barkley, R.A. — ADHD: A Handbook for Diagnosis & Treatment

OUR STANDARD✅

What we hold ourselves to

Every title is fact-checked against the source; session lengths follow the attention research; techniques come from the evidence base — and we say so when something is just our craft, not a study.

→Plainly: we design with research. We don’t make medical claims, and Gist Library isn’t a treatment.

The Gist Library content standard

References are provided for transparency, not as endorsements. Gist Library is an educational product — not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Feel the format work

The research is nice. The proof is finishing your first gist on today's commute.

Try a free sample