Wednesday 15 September 2010

How old are you?

I found these mental agility tests this morning. I'm up early so I thought I had a little time to play (and prove to myself, of course, that I am supremely mentally agile!) On the first I scored a mental age of 18 - hooray! (I am a fair bit older than 18.) On the next, identifying the colour of space hoppers, I was quietly confident, I took it carefully and was pleased I didn't make any mistakes. I was planning my post as I completed the test and how I could say I have a mental agility of 18. I scored 43! (I am not quite that old.) 43! My pride was hurt, I was offended! I battled on and scored 18 on the next two tests, (yes, I am mentally agile and can be proud of myself.) So I went back to the space hoppers. Obviously I had got the idea wrong and just needed to do it quickly. Now I understood, I'd sort it out. Poised for speed I made two mistakes and scored 40, (still older than my actual age!) So, it turns out, while I have a good eye for detail, can plan ahead and remember things well, I can't multi-task very well: I can't filter out the irrelevant information from the important, at least, not very well.
This sounds about right. While, if you asked, I would say I multi-task all the time and am good at it, acually I'm not. I get distracted. (Which, I guess, is why I was playing mental agility games on the computer rather than writing the post I'd planned.) Just ask my husband, who has frequently accepted the offer of a cup of tea, only to come to the kitchen 10 minutes later to find a hot kettle, two mugs and an absent wife. Just ask my children who are often told that they have made me forget what I was doing or that I am not an octopus and can't deal with everything they are asking of me. I think today, I shall try and do one thing at a time and see how I get on. (And before I do that, I'll just have one more go at the space hoppers!)

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