Word List Recall

December 21, 2006 2:10 PM

Test your short-term memory: Word List Recall. Via Andrew Tobias.
posted by russilwvong (22 comments total)

Short term memorywhaty?

Oooh, it's snowing.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:27 PM on December 21, 2006

Hey, it's snowing!
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:27 PM on December 21, 2006

I have the memory of a 20-year-old! Woo-hoo!

Although, frankly, before I looked at the results I was pretty sure I was going to be told I was well down the descent into senility. I guess people's memories are just plain rotten.
posted by languagehat at 2:28 PM on December 21, 2006

I like snow.
posted by bashos_frog at 2:31 PM on December 21, 2006

If you didn't do as well as you'd hoped, don't worry too much about it.

*fails to not worry too much about it*
posted by Kwine at 2:33 PM on December 21, 2006

I got 9.

Or was it 10?

Wait a sec, let me find that scrap of paper again - I'm sure I left it around here somewhere...
posted by bashos_frog at 2:35 PM on December 21, 2006

Whoah. I just noticed it's snowing. I don't know how I didn't see that before.

Um, what is this post about again?
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:38 PM on December 21, 2006

I started doing the test here at work and then remembered I had fifty-odd graphics to produce by tomorrow and then thought, "Where the hell's my coffee cup?" and...

What was I doing?
posted by elendil71 at 2:40 PM on December 21, 2006

I got fifteen, fifty times in a row. Witness my genius!!
posted by greensweater at 2:43 PM on December 21, 2006

I managed all six.
posted by econous at 2:54 PM on December 21, 2006

Five tries: 10,10,11,14,9

The ones I forgot were almost always grouped in the middle. On my fourth try I was able to link nearly all the words into a coherent image, only forgetting the non-descriptive word "somewhere". But by my last try it was getting harder to distinguish the words shown during that run from the words still in my head from the previous four.
posted by H-Bar at 2:59 PM on December 21, 2006

Hint: try writing the words down the first time around, its easier that way.
posted by StickyCarpet at 3:02 PM on December 21, 2006

I got 8.

Granted, four of the words I recall weren't actually on the list.
posted by katillathehun at 3:28 PM on December 21, 2006

Hm, turns out I have the memory of a one year old.

Seriously, I was a little disappointed that there was no field to fill in the words you remembered (like Dr. Kawashima so kindly provides). It makes you have to use pen & paper, or read the words our in your head and then forget how many they were exactly.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:32 PM on December 21, 2006

our->out
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:33 PM on December 21, 2006

That was fun. A good technique is to create a story out of the words coming up. My story was something along the lines of A "person" "finds" the "distance" to his "jacket" "round" the corner where on the "pavement", "oatmeal", you get the picture.
posted by ageispolis at 5:15 PM on December 21, 2006

you get the picture.

Yes, we see.

Whoah, I just flipped into "Leader of the Pack" mode there.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:00 PM on December 21, 2006

StickyCarpet, I can't figure out if you actually missed the point, or just have a really good poker face.
posted by jacalata at 6:33 PM on December 21, 2006

I think StickyCarpet JUST has a really good HEY LOOK A KITTY CAT
posted by brain_drain at 7:09 PM on December 21, 2006

Um, I capitalized all the letters in "just" so you could more easily remember it. Yeah.
posted by brain_drain at 7:11 PM on December 21, 2006

My best friend has a photographic memory and Tourette's syndrome.
Insert punchline.
posted by Dizzy at 12:49 AM on December 22, 2006

12

I made a story as well, but I forgot the fingernail's part.
posted by flippant at 12:57 AM on December 22, 2006