Lumosity IQ - Cognitive processes

[targobelle]

I shared merely for the coffee comment!

 

[Mempy]

I get through the first ones because I can quickly think of a route where the monsters aren't in order to reach the goal, but I can't recall where they were specifically.

I have the same problem. I think the monster garden is the hardest one to get better at by practice alone.

I've been getting much better at that one. All you have to do is focus on everything at once, expand the amount of information you absorb and try to delay processing it. It's a weird mental trick, but I seem to be able to do it.

I’ve also figured out that I tend to hit the bird more accurately when I aim a little higher than my first instinct. In other words, for some reason, when I see these birds out of the corner of my eye, I see them a little lower than they really are. Also, the sweet spot on the birds seems to be higher on their body, where their wing meets their body – even more than when you hit them right in the middle. I’ll test this more though.

I think the key to this one is memorizing my multiplication tables again and practicing addition/subtraction.

Absolutely. The only reason I’m pretty good at this is because in grade school they drilled these simple multiplication and divide problems into my head. We literally spent most of third and fourth grade memorizing times tables, haha.

I wonder how many poor sheep mempy has murdered by now.

Lmao, a lot. But hey, I'm only tranquilizing them.

 

[Mempy]

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee252/mempyism/damnit.jpg

Damn it, if only I could get under .1 second!

 

[CzeCze]

Birdwatching 141
Monster Garden 159
Raindrops 158

Which pushed my overall score up 16 points from 136 to 152. Improving on the birdwatching really helped. The other two games my score is pretty static.

Ha! Maybe my brain works better an hour or two after I wake up as opposed to an hour before I go to bed...

 

[Mempy]

Damn you, CzeCze and PT. Do I really have to get higher scores than you, for pride purposes? Couldn't you have spared me the work and scored lower than me?

 

[ptgatsby]

I have the same problem. I expect that if you practice, you may get better.

I think some will have difficulties because they are preferring one strategy over the other (I would suspect that those with strong 'preferences' towards certain traits might find particular things harder as a result, but that's just speculation).

Early on, the goal is to remember no more than 3 things - this is the easiest and allows you to also remember the color. Lemme see if I can explain this.

Here's an example of one of the charts. I've added how to compress a 4 pattern into a 2-pattern, so to speak (this is a bad example, but it's easy to explain from the small ones).

I use blocks of "4" like tetris because I'm used to it. In this case, I knew that the bottom couldn't contain the path (bottom right popped up first), so the pattern I used was the L shape, and just remember L - middle).

It's not always that easy, but here's how I generally do it as it gets more complex (again, from early, but this applies to the big grid even more).

The blue is the pattern that I remember to be safe, while the red is the line that I knew was not safe. When put together, I don't need to remember anything else (the logical conclusion is that the "z" puts one up, while the rest is safe).

Practise has got my score rise from the 120s to the 150s, so the tricks are important. It's impossible beyond roughly 2400 points (about 130, I think) without starting to use the tricks because humans will need to remember things in clumps, visual clumps, at the 25+ square points.

Also, memory is very good at remembering visuals, which is why the patterns are better than remembering "red here"... also remember that you don't need the color, so just memorise patterns together, if you can (ie: the "line = yellow"). If you do this enough, you should be able to split the colors up even more. That's really hard though... I just try to think of the patterns as colors since that will still only occupy one memory spot. Even if it's not perfect, you can guess within the pattern and often get it right.

I’ve also figured out that I tend to hit the bird more accurately when I aim a little higher than my first instinct. In other words, for some reason, when I see these birds out of the corner of my eye, I see them a little lower than they really are. Also, the sweet spot on the birds seems to be higher on their body, where their wing meets their body – even more than when you hit them right in the middle. I’ll test this more though.

The test isn't balanced. Set your resolution to 800x600 and try it... Do that and use a smaller monitor - I broke 160 doing that. I can only hit 140 using my 22" wide screen.

Absolutely. The only reason I’m pretty good at this is because in grade school they drilled these simple multiplication and divide problems into my head. We literally spent most of third and fourth grade memorizing times tables, haha.

If the basic math is causing problems, you'll probably be limit bound under 10,000 points. At about 3000 points it starts changing the level of math, so you need to be able to deal with higher numbers pretty fast. That'll get you to 10,000. To get to 15,000, you'll need to do them fast - faster than one a second. If you are able to do the suns reasonably well, you should be able to 'push' this score to about 18,000 (about 155 I think). Above 20,000, you need to be able to do all of the above and the xx+xx suns in under 0.75 seconds - typing speed is the hard part here. To push 25,000+ you need to start optimizing the answers (answer those that are 0-10 as soon as you see them). To get to 30,000, you have to be able to store the answer to the suns and enter it as a "reset" every 5 seconds or so... so no pause from answering. After that, marginal improvements will probably get you to 35,000 (I've only hit about 34,000 I think, or whatever 187 is equal to) and it's all about how well you can chain the suns under pressure. And of course, your accuracy should be in the 99% somewhere. Not because it punishes you, but because you can't afford the time to be wrong!

Err... anyway, there is a lot of tiering in this one and it doesn't measure processing speed as much as rote. Once you can recall all the math, you'll jump up a huge amount. Once you are able to do the suns without error (or very little error), you'll jump a huge amount. And to push the limits of the game, you have to be a near-accountant in terms of speed.


(And for the record, I LOVE these games, yes, and I'm doing them to relax while I'm working on my math assignments )

 

[Grayscale]

I got .26 bobbing bobcat. :sad:

Attention - 98
Memory - 153
Processing - 146

Total 132

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4467/86258640cp7.gif

I think I could do better... I'm in a post-lunch daze right now. :zzz:

I'll try it again at night when I'm much more alert.

 

[Athenian200]

I think some will have difficulties because they are preferring one strategy over the other (I would suspect that those with strong 'preferences' towards certain traits might find particular things harder as a result, but that's just speculation).

Early on, the goal is to remember no more than 3 things - this is the easiest and allows you to also remember the color. Lemme see if I can explain this.

Here's an example of one of the charts. I've added how to compress a 4 pattern into a 2-pattern, so to speak (this is a bad example, but it's easy to explain from the small ones).

I use blocks of "4" like tetris because I'm used to it. In this case, I knew that the bottom couldn't contain the path (bottom right popped up first), so the pattern I used was the L shape, and just remember L - middle).

It's not always that easy, but here's how I generally do it as it gets more complex (again, from early, but this applies to the big grid even more).

The blue is the pattern that I remember to be safe, while the red is the line that I knew was not safe. When put together, I don't need to remember anything else (the logical conclusion is that the "z" puts one up, while the rest is safe).

Practise has got my score rise from the 120s to the 150s, so the tricks are important. It's impossible beyond roughly 2400 points (about 130, I think) without starting to use the tricks because humans will need to remember things in clumps, visual clumps, at the 25+ square points.

Also, memory is very good at remembering visuals, which is why the patterns are better than remembering "red here"... also remember that you don't need the color, so just memorise patterns together, if you can (ie: the "line = yellow"). If you do this enough, you should be able to split the colors up even more. That's really hard though... I just try to think of the patterns as colors since that will still only occupy one memory spot. Even if it's not perfect, you can guess within the pattern and often get it right.

Actually, I did something similar... I remembered a safe path because I couldn't remember the exact locations. The only difference was that I'm very bad at it compared to you... I'm not good at processing space. I think it could be my weak S giving me grief here.

 

[Mempy]

I love these games too!

I do remember the monsters by envisioning tetris blocks. That's what helps the most. I thought that it was because I was memorizing in clumps too. Though, sometimes the monsters appear in a pattern that doesn't resemble anything, especially when I'm playing with more blocks, so those are hard to remember.

Actually, on the birdwatching, I've got up above 160, I think. I may have hit 8000 in points, which I thought was kickass.

At this point, what's slowing me down is the math. If it gets that much more complicated after 3000, I don't know if I stand much hope.

 

[ptgatsby]

Actually, I did something similar... I remembered a safe path because I couldn't remember the exact locations. The only difference was that I'm very bad at it compared to you... I'm not good at processing space. I think it could be my weak S giving me grief here.

It really is just practise. I'm not really that good at it - I had to do this particular one about 20 times to get into the tricks mindset... and even now, sometimes I find a pattern I haven't seen before and I'm screwed.

It's always said to work on one's inferior functions, and while I don't think this has as much to do with functions, it can only help. The same technique can be used from everything from studying to playing chess. And different tricks can be used to memorise incredible amounts of information (the common example being memorising the order of an entire deck of cards). It's all just practise! (But if you haven't used it much in your life, it may take a while of repeated practise. Same goes for the math - repetition is all it takes.)

 

[ptgatsby]

At this point, what's slowing me down is the math. If it gets that much more complicated after 3000, I don't know if I stand much hope.

At 140, you are doing pretty gamn good. It doesn't get any harder, I don't think, except you need to be able to do the xx+y problems and the xx-y problems just as fast. And you need to get luck in the 15,000+ range too, so there is an element of that. I can do problems just under 2/second and I can't keep up after about 18,000. Without suns, it quickly turns around on me. Get a string of about 30 problems without a sun and you will lose a life. At the end of my best run, they were coming so fast I couldn't read them easily anymore - between 5 and 10 a second. If they cover the sun before you register it, you lose. If the sun doesn't come, you lose. You get the sun wrong, you lose.

It's fun, but the test is quite erratic! I like the brainage version of the math problems.

 

[white]

Edit: removed to another thread. This poor test was getting buried under sheep and monsters and falling raindrops.

 

[Mempy]

I'm getting closer. .1144 seconds!

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee252/mempyism/closer.jpg

 

[cascadeco]

Hehe...this test is so fun to do. I love it.

And apparently I do best when I'm slightly inebriated with two glasses of wine in me!!!

---------------------------
Your Total Score:

135


Want to improve your LumosIQ?

Sharpen your mind with Lumosity - a scientifically designed brain fitness program shown to improve memory and attention. Lumosity consists of engaging games and exercises designed to adapt to your skill level.


Learn more
Your Brightness Rating:



Detailed LumosIQ Results:

137
Attention
Birdwatching
111
Memory
Monster Garden
157
Processing Speed
Raindrops
Total Score:

135

 

[white]

I'm getting closer. .1144 seconds!

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee252/mempyism/closer.jpg

I think you just have to preempt one sheep successfully and you'd get the cheetah. =D

 

[cascadeco]

But the wine is apparently affecting my reaction time in the 2nd test.

0.3412 average time. Ambling armadillo.

 

[CzeCze]

I'm being super nerdy (thanks Aelan) I signed up for the 2 week free trial of brain trainers from Luminosity. Even more games. Very very fun. If anyone wants to be super nerdy with me and challenge each others scores, pm me. It would require setting up an free membership as well.

 

[white]

meh! try the colour test? or should I put that in another thread? I didn't want to create a new thread of tests every week.

 

[Athenian200]

But the wine is apparently affecting my reaction time in the 2nd test.

0.3412 average time. Ambling armadillo.

Why are you taking the test after imbibing wine? You know you should take that test after a stimulant, not a relaxant.

 

[cascadeco]

Oh, because sadly I had nothing better to do. And the tests are so fun!