Week 2 - How Good Is Your Memory?


Hey guys!

I took a few memory tests to see how much I could remember in a short period of time, and my results were much better than I expected. I can say that my memory is better than average, I guess, except sometimes memorizing things in a short period of time before a test doesn't go so well.

The first test I took was the Short Term Memory Test in which I had to memorize a list of 12 words and I had to type the terms I remembered in that certain amount of time. At first I thought I wasn't going to do so well, but I actually remembered 10 out of the 12 words given. Is this a good score? Well, according to Harvard-based psychologist George A. Miller found that in our short-term memory, the average number of "chunks" of information that can be stored is 7, or between 5 and 9, which means if you scored this, your memory is working at average capacity. So I'm guessing my memory is better than average!

The second test I tried was the Picture Short Term Memory Test in which you have 30 seconds to memorize a set of objects on the page (see below) and after 30 seconds you are to write down all the objects from that page that you remember and go back to the page to see how many you actually remembered correctly. I remembered 13 out of 20 of the objects, which is actually pretty good for me. I just looked at one object and tried to memorize the objects next to it and repeat the objects in my head.



The third test I tried was the Number Memory Test in which you are given numbers with a certain number of digits beginning from 3-digits to more than 10-digits. But the number of digits only increases if you are able to memorize the number for 10 seconds each and type it correctly to move on to an increasing-digit number. I could only remember up to a 9-digit number which I think is pretty cool because I didn't think my memory was that good. Towards the end, I got really nervous because I thought I was going to mess up and then I did. It's hard trying to memorize a 10-digit number in 10 seconds!

So, how good is your memory?

Want to learn more about the brain and memory?
Here is an interesting article: Why Forgetting May Make Your Mind More Efficient


Mary N

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 7 - The Anything Blog

Image
Hey guys... this week I will be talking about a very random topic related to psychology... ADHD! "I don't know... I probably have ADHD" is what I tell my friends when they ask me why I cannot sit still in one place for a long time. It is true though, I honestly can't sit still; if I am sitting down in a chair and doing something, I have to shake my leg or move around in my chair. If not, I am probably fidgeting around with my pencil. If I am standing in one spot while my friend is talking to me, my mind will make me want to get out of that spot and walk back and forth and move around. I also get distracted very easily and zone out and daydream a lot when a teacher is giving a lecture. It sort of sounds like I may have ADHD, right? Well, that's at least what I thought until I did some reading about the common disorder. ADHD stands for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder that is characterized by symptoms of inattentiveness, distractibility, hype...
Read more

Week 4 - My Life Story

Image
Hey guys! This week I am going to tell you my life story. I was born on April 30th, 2002 in Houston, Texas. My first words were "mama" and "dada", and I cried a lot as a baby. Around 3 or 4 years of age, I guess disliked eating because I would always spit out my food in the trash or in places around the house and my dad would get very mad at me. When I was 4 and a half years old, my older brother and I moved to Plano, TX with my aunt for the next ten years of my childhood because my mom had passed away a few months before and my dad couldn't take care of four children by himself. I attended Sigler Elementary, Wilson Middle School, Vines High School for my freshman year, and moved back to Houston and have attended Dulles High School since sophomore year. I hit puberty when I was in the sixth grade and I have grown more mature since then. Me at 3 days old. Me at 6 weeks old.   I have a lot of thoughts and plans for my future. I plan to gr...
Read more

Week 5 - Senses and Stuff

Image
Hey guys... I'm back with another blog! This week, I will be telling you guys about one of our five senses and how interesting learning more about them can be! Today, I chose to explore our sense of TASTE! I found an article in which apparently, scientists have discovered a "sixth" sense on our tongues by conducting a lab experiment on a rat. Officially, there are five basic tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami. After reading the article, I learned a few things, for example, this "sixth" sense on our tongue apparently relates to how mammals use water. This new sense allows mammals to identify water from other liquids, yet scientists are debating whether or not water has a taste of its own. It is said that a region in the human cortex responds specifically to water. The brain receives information about water from the mouth and tongue to know when they are thirsty and when to stop drinking from replenishment. So neurologists at the California In...
Read more