A Brief Demonstration of the Fallibility of Memory

[Pyrrho]

Short-term memory test:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stm0.html

This is a small example of why I think anecdotes are not reliable for use as evidence.

[arcticpenguin]

I missed one letter out of 42. But then I've tested high on other short term memory tests before.

I am a golden god.

[wayrad]

I remembered all the letters, but threw in an extra one.

[ceptimus]

I got a perfect score.

[Ladewig]

Missed 5 out of 42. Part of my missing this many letters came from not following directions. The instructions say remember and write them down. I had the idea that they had to be written down in order. I lost some time getting the order memorized.

[Yahweh]

42/42

Looks like my anecdotes cant be denied... wait till I tell you about the time I was abducted by alien ghosts and forced to eat kiwi fruit (or tangerines... ???)...

[Zep]

Why would anyone need to be FORCED to eat kiwifruit? Or tangerines, for that matter...

[arcticpenguin]

Originally posted by Zep
Why would anyone need to be FORCED to eat kiwifruit? Or tangerines, for that matter...
Imagine the alien ghosts didn't understand which orifice should be used for eating...

[Cecil]

43/42. My memory is so good I can remember letters that weren't there. :D

[Wyvern]

Originally posted by Zep
Why would anyone need to be FORCED to eat kiwifruit? Or tangerines, for that matter...
Well, if it's not a good kiwifruit, I can certainly understand. :D

I never liked kiwi until one day when I had a really good one.

[!Xx+-Rational-+xX!]

That's what the crab people want you all to think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@

[Darat]

100% correct until the last line, then someone popped their head around my office door and said "coffee?" as I was looking at it.

Then dropped 5 letters :(

So as long as I am an eye witness in a relatively quiet office where I can concentrate on the event 100%, and the eye witness account I have to remember is a series of English letters and there is no possible distraction then you can be sure my account is 100% accurate.

[michaellee]

Cake- perfect score, and I did it with one eye closed, I think... or did I have both open?

[Marvel Frozen]

Was that supposed to be difficult? I remembered all 42 with no problem.

Edited to add: I thought the picture one was tougher. I only got 11 out of 20.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/puzmatch1.html

[The Don]

I'm trying to work out whether it's better that I claim to be forgetful or illiterate

plus on the pictures one, my blind spot was the whole middle of the screen

[Vitnir]

I blame my score on gremlins :p

[ImpyTimpy]

Originally posted by Marvel Frozen
Was that supposed to be difficult? I remembered all 42 with no problem.

Edited to add: I thought the picture one was tougher. I only got 11 out of 20.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/puzmatch1.html

Picture one 11 out of 20 as well. The words one though I only got 36 out of 42. The last page pretty much flashed before my eyes... :(

[thaiboxerken]

I am a rational person, so I know what I saw and the numbers changed from what I remember. The test must be rigged because my experiences cannot be.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

I got them all correct. For the first few, I just repeated them out loud over and over until I wrote them down. For the last couple, I made a pseudo-word out of the last half of the letters, then repeated the first letters and the pseudo-word until I could write them all down.

~~ Paul

[El Greco]

But obviously, if we keep increasing the number of letters, everyone would have his/her limits. And then, different people would give different results if we have numbers, colors, shapes or sounds. I have a friend who can reproduce an amazing number of random notes played on the piano...

[renata]

Interesting tests...I used the same method as Paul did- made words of the letters. I also did not realize you did not have to get them in order. I actually repeated a letter in 5th exercise, but I am not sure it counts against me. Overall missed one, in the last one. The picture one was easy for me. I quickly categorized the objects into office objects/home objects/outside objects and made up a quick narrative incorporating them-Pretended I was walking home from my office, and saw a plane, a kite, rainbow and butterfly. I got home, and saw...and so on. I got 19, I missed the lock in my narrative. :)

However, I was always good in short term memory tests. Of course that means nothing in the long run.

[El Greco]

Originally posted by bpesta22
Someone published a study fairly recently showing that one of the best ways to estimate a person's memory span is just to have him/her list as many animals as they can in 30 seconds. Pretty neat!

One final interesting thing about span-- it increases dramatically from birth to maturity, and declines fairly steeply with age.



Yeah, having watched 30 hours of wildlife documentaries during last week, I can list the whole Noah's ark :D

As for the span, I tend to agree, but there also some irregularities. For example, many top chess players are rather old.

[El Greco]

Originally posted by bpesta22
It's been awhile since I read the lit, but beyond a certain age (40's I believe) added experience doesnt offset brain rot, and the older chess player's performance suffers

You are right, I had in mind people like Steinitz but he is the exception.

I can cope with degradation of bodily functions, but brain rotting scares the hell out of me :(

[El Greco]

Originally posted by bpesta22
Dont worry- it doesnt start til around age 21. You lose about 1 ms per year on speeded cognitive tasks.

Yeah, why worry, my brain has already been rotting only for 15 years now :con2: I knew that something was wrong since the last few years I couldn't even get close to my pacman highscore :D