Decision Fatigue
Decision Fatigue is the deterioration of decision-making quality after making many decisions consecutively. First documented by Roy Baumeister and colleagues in the late 1990s, this mental model explains why judges grant more paroles after meals, why shoppers buy more junk food at night, and why CEOs wear the same clothes daily. Understanding Decision Fatigue allows individuals to structure their days around peak decision-making capacity and organizations to design processes that protect their teams from cognitive exhaustion.
Working Memory
Working Memory is the cognitive system that temporarily holds and manipulates information during complex mental tasks. First proposed by Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch in 1974, this mental model explains the "mental workspace" where thinking actually happens — the buffer between sensory input and long-term storage. Understanding Working Memory allows educators to design better learning materials, managers to communicate more effectively, and individuals to optimize their cognitive performance by respecting the brain's finite processing capacity.