The Memory Test

Dennis and I had fun with this tonight. I found it in the latest issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.

Here's what you do.
Set a timer for 2 minutes, then study the words below.
When the timer goes off, put this list aside and go do something else that will distract you...check email, read the paper.

20 minutes later write down as many words as you remember.

Here they are:

violin
balloon
stereo
building
strawberry
cradle
mast
lizard
teacher
oven

Dennis got all 10 right.
I asked him, "How did you do that??!"
I was surprised by his answer, and I will have him tell about it in my next post, if anyone is interested.

By the way, here is what your score means:

8 or more words: You're a memory superstar

5 to 7 words: This is typical for a middle aged person

4 or fewer words: Good Housekeeping magazine was kind in their reply: "A low score doesn't mean you are headed towards senility, but you should take a look at your life-- the issue may be your stress levels--to see what may be interfering with your memory."

8 comments:

Eileen said...

I am definitely going to try this. I'm a little nervous though as I feel my memory is slipping and I keep thinking of my Mom with the Alzheimer's Disease.
I hope you don't mind but I'm going to copy and paste right now.

Thanks for posting this!

Grandma Honey said...

My mother had Alzheimer's too. I know the worry.
Sure go ahead and copy and paste Eileen.

Richard said...

How does Dennis do with grocery lists? He has no excuses now.

Karen Mortensen said...

I am not even going to try. I am impressed with Dennis but it doesn't surprise me because of how he remembers people's names.

Grandma Honey said...

Don't despair Karen. Den has this method that would even work for me. He can't even remember 2 items on a grocery list and almost always calls me from the store. But he has a trick for learning a long list like this one on my blog.

So no Richard, Den does not do well at the grocery store.

Lisa said...

I'll be waiting to see what Dennis sasy. I think it's amuxing that you amuse yourselves with tests like that! Life is great isn't it?

Forever Young is about a guy (Mel Gibson) who can't ear the thought of watching the love of his life die, so he asks his friend to allow him to be frozen for a gov. experiment. It's a nice movie, but I think there might be one swear word in it.

grandmapeg said...

I have a big headache today so you know how my memory is when I have one of those but I managed 7 words so I guess I'm a typical middle aged person. I would love for Dennis to tell us his method!! And may I add to Lisa's comment about the movie Forever Young. We really enjoyed it!!

Mary said...

Usually people who do well on memory tests don't have better memories, they just know the tricks. I used to ace tests requiring memorization because I knew all the mnemonic devices. I don't know what method Dennis used, but I would memorize those words by putting them all into a short story. I can't wait to hear what Dennis did!

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