37, 6 years younger than me real age
I think this test is associated with the therories surrounding the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The left hemisphere is where we take information in, the right hemisphere is where our brain attempts to process and analyse that information very closely, often referred to as advanced thinking in the right hemisphere and raw data input in the left hemisphere. Crucially between the two hemispheres there is a filter down on the underside of the brain, that filter controls the amount of raw information that gets through for analysis.
The older we get the more the right hemisphere takes over and filters out a lot of information that we see. Everyone actually has a photographic memory because your left hemisphere takes in absolutely everything, but there is an area of our brain that filters out what we need and the right hemisphere goes into detail analysis of what gets through the filter. A good example of this is when you find yourself working away and something distracts you that causes you to put something down, when you try to find it again you think you put it somewhere but when you look its not there, so you look everywhere else. But when you scan over the place that you actually put it you fail to see it, this is because your right hemisphere has already told you that it is not there (where you are looking because you thought it was somewhere else) so it over-rules the left hemisphere that sees it clearly as it is there. If however you ask someone else if they have seen it they have no pre-conceptions of where it is or it isn’t so they see it immediately and inform you that its under your nose you idiot
Very interesting the left/right hemisphere brain subject, IIRC it really affects some people who have a disorder in the filter department as their brains are bombarded with far too much information constantly and they end up going crazy.
I guess this test is testing the left/right because on my best run at the test when I got upto the region of 9 digits at a time you cannot possibly look at and process all 9 digits in such short time but crucially you do see them so the information is lodged in the left hemisphere, when I then ‘pointed’ to give my answer I was not sure where they were but was running on instinct which just happened to be spot on several times and did not let me down. So by trusting my instincts I was not actually processing what I saw, in fact I was only looking in the middle of the screen and relying on the left hemisphere to soak up the information required, that would account for the error that I made which was to mistake a 6 for an 8 or 9, all pretty similiar if not looked at directly.
Read a huge article sometime ago about the left/right brain subject and it was hugely interesting, watched a couple of documentaries as well and I did find it a very involving subject.
edit: I guess 20 is determined as optimum brain age where we see and process someones idea behind of the perfect amount of information
Very interesting.
A few days ago i was looking at number plates and trying to recall the letters and numbers moments later. I found that i had to literally record the image in one glance (since vehicles move too fast) rather than look at each individual letter, then recall the letters in my mind. that test reminded me very much of that process. Still not too good, need more practise.
Im very aware that when it comes to numbers and letters, my memory is not so trained, but I never forget images like faces or any visual image and am very good at seeing beyond change of age and even family similarities, say a son or daughter of an older actor from film. Just on Monday evening I met an old teacher of mine who I recognised beyond the grey hair and older face, but he didnt recognise me. The last time id seen him was 23 years ago! I am very aware in my every day life of seeing and recording` everything that goes on in the daily world, especially regarding people.