A meta-analysis of 175 primary literature
studies of Modafinil in humans demonstrated significant
improvements in executive functions (most notably attention
and memory) on both simple tasks and complex
tasks.
However, only 24 studies employed a double blind
randomized control trial study design. Ritalin, in a meta
analysis of 19 randomized control trials [8], was found to
demonstrate a consistent effect specific to memory, but
failed to demonstrate an effect for other executive functions.