|
|
|
Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2009 : 22:26:30 [Permalink]
|
Got a 24 on my first try (I'm 42).
In keeping with the idea that I should get a treat after each run, I will now have a beer... |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
 |
|
|
Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
|
|
Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
|
|
Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
|
|
Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 08:39:20 [Permalink]
|
| From a sample size of two, it looks like alcohol greases the cogs upstairs. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
|
|
|
Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 12:27:01 [Permalink]
|
| Oh well. I can't seem to score below 34. But then, I am 59 so I guess I should consider that good. One of these days I will try it when I am not sick with a cold... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
|
|
|
On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 13:36:08 [Permalink]
|
| a more effective mental stimulant would be nicotene, so, smoke if you got 'em. |
 |
|
|
|
Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 14:11:09 [Permalink]
|
I recall this study in the media a year or so ago. Wish Slater(Koko) were around to hear his pitch on it.
I scored a sleepy-eyed 27 this a.m., with another sleepy-eyed try this afternoon, scoring a 28.
Hmmm. |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
|
|
|
Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 02/15/2009 : 16:52:48 [Permalink]
|
| Would it be different if, instead of numbers, something else were used? Like random but still distinct blobs? I haven't taken it yet (I tomorrow after having not had so much beer), but I wonder if humans are slower because there's a short delay as they unconsciously process the fact that the design in front of them is a number, and not something random? |
|
|
|
tomk80
SFN Regular
Netherlands
1278 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 17:21:06 [Permalink]
|
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Would it be different if, instead of numbers, something else were used? Like random but still distinct blobs? I haven't taken it yet (I tomorrow after having not had so much beer), but I wonder if humans are slower because there's a short delay as they unconsciously process the fact that the design in front of them is a number, and not something random?
|
Would that help? Since the idea is to set something in a particular order, you'd still need to assign some meaning to the blobs. |
Tom
`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll- |
|
|
|
H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 17:47:41 [Permalink]
|
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Would it be different if, instead of numbers, something else were used? Like random but still distinct blobs? I haven't taken it yet (I tomorrow after having not had so much beer), but I wonder if humans are slower because there's a short delay as they unconsciously process the fact that the design in front of them is a number, and not something random? |
I don't see that making a positive difference, because you still have to mentally order the images, whether they be numbers (2 comes before 6) or randomly assigned symbols (green star comes before orange circle). If anything, using numeric symbols so familiar to people that they hardly have to think about their proper order should be a net benefit, not a hindrance.
Edited to add: But maybe adding colors would help. If each number were given a specific color, with lower numbers starting at warm reddish hues and working up to cold bluish ones, I bet times would increase.
It also might be interesting to take symbolic representation out of the equation entirely. Just make them all black circles of various sizes, and then have to remember the order of smallest to largest.
I'm not sure if these variations would screw up whatever the original researchers were trying to measure, though.
|
"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 02/15/2009 17:57:27 |
|
|
|
Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 19:41:33 [Permalink]
|
The problem that switching to various shapes or colors would solve is the confusion - with just a quick glance - of, say, 5 and 6. Or 3 and 8. The problem is that the shapes of numbers were never intended to be distinguishable from one another within a fraction of a second when they're jumbled up.
Letters of the alphabet would pose a similar difficulty.
Plain colored circles might help, once you train a person in the proper color order (whatever you happen to define that as). Or a bunch of highly distinct shapes (once again, allowing a person to take minutes or hours to learn the proper order).
But, these are just hypothetical solutions to something that may not even be a problem. I want to blame my not doing better than I did on something, and I remember very well screwing up not a few times on similarly-shaped numbers. I never mistook a 4 for an 8, for example. But 5 and 6 I goofed at least once. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
|
|
|
Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2009 : 20:36:48 [Permalink]
|
| I found it easiest if I just got a general impression of the overall field, a gut reaction if you will, and then quickly selected the empty circles where I thought lowest-to-highest numbers were. My score was 37 first try, 52 second try, (with different patterns) just going with overall impressions. |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
|
|
|
Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 02/16/2009 : 01:11:25 [Permalink]
|
I've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing around my basement tonight, and have had five-and-a-half beers in the last four hours or so.
I just tried the memory test again, and once again got a 20.
The numbers in the lower right clearly keep track of the number of sequences you get correct and wrong (left and right numbers, respectively), and I got 7 and 3, just like the last time I tried and got a 20, last night.
I just threw the first two sequences, to see if it ever gives a person only two numbers, and then playing my best got a 6/4 and a 29 as a result.
Anyway, it adds a number every time you get the sequence correct, and drops a number every time you get one wrong (three numbers, minimum). One can assume that it won't toss "10" or "11" into the mix, and so it's probable that getting everything correct will result in the last three sequences being all ten numbers (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 and 10 being the number of digits in each sequence).
0/10 does give one a result of 120. So does getting the first one right and all the rest wrong. And the first two. And the first three.
It just occured to me, though, that it may be measuring how much of each sequence you get correct, even if you finally flub it. Getting every sequence wrong on the second number still gives 120 as the result. Ah, the heck with it, I'm not going to put forth the effort in figuring out how it scores.
However, I just found the second test, which asks you to supply the correct arithmetic operator (add, subtract, multiply or divide), and I scored a 39 my first try (six beers now).
The third brain test is available in English (and a bunch of other languages). The object is to click one of six color words, the correct one being the color that the top word is displayed in. For example, the correct answer for "RED" would be "GREEN," which is itself likely to be displayed itself in yellow or blue or white or anything other than green.
Brain test four is beyond me right now. I managed an 80 with pure guessing.
And they've also got some sliding block puzzles, which I've never been good at, along with a boatload of other flash thingies. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
|
|
|
H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 02/16/2009 : 01:53:03 [Permalink]
|
Originally posted by Dave W.
Brain test four is beyond me right now. I managed an 80 with pure guessing.
|
Looks like it's just a game of "one of these things is not like the others." 3 are the same image rotated. 1 is different from the rest.
|
"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Memory Skill Test
