Cognitive Tests - A Personal Anecdote

[MineralMan]

When I had my annual Medicare wellness check this year, during which they administer a simple cognitive test, I noticed something. The test consists of drawing a clock face with the time of 11:10 and remembering three words for a few minutes.

This year, as in the previous three years, the words were: Sunrise. Breakfast. Chair. Before that, it was Banana. Breakfast. Chair.

I asked the PA who does the basic checkup before the doctor comes in why they use the same three words every year. She said, "Why not? It's easy for us to remember, and if the patient can remember that they're the same three words every time, the patient clearly doesn't have any memory issues. If the patient has such problems, they can't remember that it's the same three words, anyhow."

Makes sense.

[Raven]

1. My experience too and I asked them the same question and got the same answer. :-)

[MineralMan]

2. I guess we both passed the test, eh?

[Raven]

3. I guess we did but I'm not braggin'. :-)

[JT45242]

4. Mom's experience -- maybe a laugh

When my mom had a stroke, they gave her this test.

The funny part was that she although she struggled with keeping the three words in her short term memory. Then they showed her the pictures of the animals -- She said "dromedary". The nurse looked at me and had no idea what was going on. I nodded and told her that was correct.

Outside in the hall, I told the nurse that since it was a one hump camel my mom said "Dromedary." It was pretty clear that whatever the stroke took from her it was not her crossword puzzle vocabulary.

She just laughed. "I have given that test a thousand times and I have never heard the word dromedary ever -- not even in normal life."

Funny and sad at the same time -- strokes seemed to arbitrarily take only parts of her brain and that frustrated her. She could still answer crossword clues but couldn't write clearly anymore.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes. Brain injuries can cause all sorts of strange things.

Studying them is one of the ways neuroscientists learn about the functions of parts of the brain.

It's a rare person who knows the difference between dromedary and bactrian camels.

Short-term and long-term memory use different parts of the brain.

As an aside, my wife does word puzzles. When she's stuck, she often asks me for help, although I never do word puzzles. My favorite was when she asked me, "What's a 9 letter word for "flightless bird?" I immediately replied, "Cassowary." My wife said, "I hate you! How did you know that?" I told her that I learned the names of all the flightless birds when I was about 10 years old by reading a book on animals. There's only one with 9 letters.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

6. Gotta love Mom. 😃

[Ohiogal]

7. Angela Merkel

Has a doctorate in quantum chemistry.

Donnie shit for brains brags constantly that he can identify a camel.

[Karma13612]

8. I will fail the memory test

Hands down.

I’m 66 and have had a bad Short term memory for years.
I blame it on my concussion when I was just a kid, probably grade school. 🧐

My memory is only good if it’s a real traumatic or catastrophic event. I also remember stuff after writing it down, or having it repeated several times.

But just a quick list in the doctor’s office is going to be a sure loser for me. Absolutely. So what happens when I fail? Do they suggest Prevagen or just lock me up in a nursing home? I worry a bit!

[MineralMan]

10. Just tell them what you wrote here.

It's not a pass/fail thing. Your concussion could have caused the problem, for sure.

[Karma13612]

15. 🙋‍♀️👍nt

[cyclonefence]

9. Trump keeps saying "or whatever the name of the test was"

I wish someone would press him on this, that he can't remember one little thing, the name of the test he's so proud of "acing."

Edited to add: my words were Banana, Sunshine, and Chair. My memory is awful, and I knew I'd have to repeat those words later on. I use mnemonics all the time: Banana Sunshine Chair=B S C="Bat Shit Crazy". The doctor said nobody had ever done so well, that I should be writing these tests.

[MineralMan]

11. That's a good way to remember random stuff.

You can also create a sentence using the words. "I ate a banana in the sunshine while sitting in a chair." Again, though, the test is not a pass/fail thing anyhow.

[Crunchy Frog]

16. I'm terrible with remembering random strings of words or numbers.

I'm a disaster if I have to get a new phone number.

I do very well with words or collections of facts as long as I can create some kind of coherent mental picture. So I can picture eating a banana in the sunshine on a chair, and I'll remember it.

I've gotten through some challenging science courses with lots of memorization that way.

I haven't yet attained the level of geezerhood to get that test yet. Not looking forward to reaching that particular milestone.

[3catwoman3]

12. Very early in my nursing career (maybe even while...

...I was still in school), I was reading a write-up on an elderly lady who was having some memory difficulties. Part of her evaluation was a vocabulary test. One of the words was “amanuensis.” Her answer - “What I used to be.”

The word was unknown to me, so I had to look it up- secretary. This had, infact, been her profession. I was impressed that she recalled the word and it’s meaning.

Let’s ask Trump what an amanuensis is.

[MineralMan]

13. I would guess that fewer than 5% of American adults know the word amanuensis.

That word should not appear in a word list to test people, to be quite frank. It might well appear in an IQ test, to measure the extent of someone's vocabulary, along with other little-used words. But not in a test designed to evaluate elderly people for memory loss.

It's a lovely word and means more than just "secretary." However, it is really no longer in use in today's English.

Note: I'm probably exaggerating by saying that even 5% of the population might know that word.

[3catwoman3]

14. This would have been back in the early 1970s.

Nearly 5 decades later, I don’t remember all the specifics of that case anymore, just that I was impressed that she knew the word.

When I re-checked the word this morning in Dictionary.com, to make sure I had it right, there are quite a number of synonyms - copyist was my favorite.

I suspect you are right about your 5% estimate. This is a GRE vocabulary section word.