Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Short-form "brain rot" content on platforms like TikTok is widely viewed as harmful for attention and learning. We find that brain rot can benefit learners with higher stimulation needs. We eye-tracked young adults (N=75) while they watched physics videos presented alone or alongside a task-irrelevant "brain rot-style" animated video. Individuals who reported preferring brain rot learned better from the brain rot condition than from the blander control condition. Furthermore, eye blinks and pupil dilation suggest that those who prefer brain rot were less overstimulated by brain rot content and required more effortful executive control to sustain attention to control content. Finally, preference for brain rot in our task is associated with higher media consumption and tolerance for high stimulation. These findings may point to individual variation in optimal cognitive load and provide preliminary support for an adaptive account of attentional bandwidth.