3 ms·

I'm in the same boat - what tests are you referring to? Might be something I can learn about myself there...

colechristensen 4y ago
I had a full 4 hour neuropsych test done as the result of a concussion. The test I was bad at was where they read you a list of random words and test your ability to retain immediately and after spaced repetitions. The first time I heard it I retained very little but on subsequent repetitions what I did learn I retained. So like a very specific sort of being bad at something. The rest of the tests were all in decently high percentiles.
- Hnrobert42 4y ago
  Could that “gap” have been attributable to the concussion, though?
  - colechristensen 4y ago
    No the concussion was recent, the problem demonstrated by the tests made a lot of lifelong things make sense.
- dylan604 4y ago
  >where they read you a list of random words and test your ability to retain immediately Person, woman, man, camera, TV type words? Sounds like other neuro tests. I've screwed up these tests as I focus on repeating each word in the gap between the next word being said then repeat with the new word being added to the point I've missed the next word. I've never "liked" this test, as I don't think it's always indicative of what they are trying to make it. This sounds more like interviewing a potential server that isn't allowed to write down the order.
  - wincy 4y ago
    This is called the working memory index score, for what it’s worth.
- wincy 4y ago
  Sounds like the WAIS-III intelligence test. The state tested me using this as an admission criteria for a summer camp full of gifted children. They accepted two kids from our school which was generally pretty rare, especially considering our school’s socioeconomic level. If I recall correctly you’re talking about the working memory index. I scored 50th percentile on that portion of the test but top 0.4% overall, which I’ve always felt like reveals something about my “ADHD brain”. It’s definitely not the norm. The administering psychologist seemed super interested in my testing and I asked a lot of questions about the process. She brought me back in for a second day of tests as some of the tests I exceeded the space available. I recall they had a band writing symbol recognition and copying test, and I filled up a page front and back, so she had to come back the next day with more pages to accurately measure me since you aren’t supposed to “ace” a part of an intelligence test. I often think about it because I often think “well, being 1 in 250 is pretty good, but that also means there’s literally millions of people smarter than me”. Hard work and building good habits like going to bed on time has been key to actually making use of the “raw power” of my brain, and Adderall as an adult has helped a ton with this despite side effects that I try to keep under control (irritability and seeming more ‘robotic’. Every time I try to stop using it I feel like my career slips and I become depressed. The me on Adderall is capable of being a competent software engineering team lead juggling multiple balls in the air. The me without Adderall struggles as a senior software engineer writing code for one project. I’m excited to take a 2 week break from the meds on vacation later this year though. I constantly feel like I’m “grinding my gears” too hard, so to speak, like the Adderall is adding jet fuel to my engine of a brain and it’s gonna burn me out. It hasn’t happened yet but I really want to avoid tolerance.
  - occasionalcoder 4y ago
    I think colechristensen had a test for episodic memory. Such a test is not included in the Wechsler intelligence scales (currently WAIS-IV for adults, WISC-V for older children), but tests for working memory are. Simplified, working memory are that limited number of items you can keep in mind, until you are disturbed or thinks about something else. Episodic memory is what you still remember after your thoughts are disturbed, and what you may remember for 10 minutes or 50 years. Surprisingly, episodic memory is not closely related to IQ and is, thus, not included in intelligence tests. What colechristensen seems to describe is that his learning was hampered by an attention deficit, but he was able to retain the information in his episodic memory when he eventually registered it.

I had a full 4 hour neuropsych test done as the result of a concussion. The test I was bad at was where they read you a list of random words and test your ability to retain immediately and after spaced repetitions. The first time I heard it I retained very little but on subsequent repetitions what I did learn I retained. So like a very specific sort of being bad at something. The rest of the tests were all in decently high percentiles.

Hnrobert42 4y ago
Could that “gap” have been attributable to the concussion, though?
- colechristensen 4y ago
  No the concussion was recent, the problem demonstrated by the tests made a lot of lifelong things make sense.
dylan604 4y ago
>where they read you a list of random words and test your ability to retain immediately Person, woman, man, camera, TV type words? Sounds like other neuro tests. I've screwed up these tests as I focus on repeating each word in the gap between the next word being said then repeat with the new word being added to the point I've missed the next word. I've never "liked" this test, as I don't think it's always indicative of what they are trying to make it. This sounds more like interviewing a potential server that isn't allowed to write down the order.
- wincy 4y ago
  This is called the working memory index score, for what it’s worth.
wincy 4y ago
Sounds like the WAIS-III intelligence test. The state tested me using this as an admission criteria for a summer camp full of gifted children. They accepted two kids from our school which was generally pretty rare, especially considering our school’s socioeconomic level. If I recall correctly you’re talking about the working memory index. I scored 50th percentile on that portion of the test but top 0.4% overall, which I’ve always felt like reveals something about my “ADHD brain”. It’s definitely not the norm. The administering psychologist seemed super interested in my testing and I asked a lot of questions about the process. She brought me back in for a second day of tests as some of the tests I exceeded the space available. I recall they had a band writing symbol recognition and copying test, and I filled up a page front and back, so she had to come back the next day with more pages to accurately measure me since you aren’t supposed to “ace” a part of an intelligence test. I often think about it because I often think “well, being 1 in 250 is pretty good, but that also means there’s literally millions of people smarter than me”. Hard work and building good habits like going to bed on time has been key to actually making use of the “raw power” of my brain, and Adderall as an adult has helped a ton with this despite side effects that I try to keep under control (irritability and seeming more ‘robotic’. Every time I try to stop using it I feel like my career slips and I become depressed. The me on Adderall is capable of being a competent software engineering team lead juggling multiple balls in the air. The me without Adderall struggles as a senior software engineer writing code for one project. I’m excited to take a 2 week break from the meds on vacation later this year though. I constantly feel like I’m “grinding my gears” too hard, so to speak, like the Adderall is adding jet fuel to my engine of a brain and it’s gonna burn me out. It hasn’t happened yet but I really want to avoid tolerance.
- occasionalcoder 4y ago
  I think colechristensen had a test for episodic memory. Such a test is not included in the Wechsler intelligence scales (currently WAIS-IV for adults, WISC-V for older children), but tests for working memory are. Simplified, working memory are that limited number of items you can keep in mind, until you are disturbed or thinks about something else. Episodic memory is what you still remember after your thoughts are disturbed, and what you may remember for 10 minutes or 50 years. Surprisingly, episodic memory is not closely related to IQ and is, thus, not included in intelligence tests. What colechristensen seems to describe is that his learning was hampered by an attention deficit, but he was able to retain the information in his episodic memory when he eventually registered it.