Received wisdom from my school system says that pupils are more attentive in their first three hours of the morning, then their attention drops as they run low on sugar; they are less focused in the afternoon.
Discounting the effect of metabolism (by comparing the afternoon period with the after dinner period, or even by comparing a normal day and one spent vaguely awake after an all-nighter), the Italian study's "spring-cleaning" thesis about low-level background activity rising during the day and lowering signal to noise for some mental processes rings true to me.
Discounting the effect of metabolism (by comparing the afternoon period with the after dinner period, or even by comparing a normal day and one spent vaguely awake after an all-nighter), the Italian study's "spring-cleaning" thesis about low-level background activity rising during the day and lowering signal to noise for some mental processes rings true to me.