Alora Fane

Look at these worryingly unimpressive results I got on a test of my cognitive performance!!

It's Tuesday. What did I do work-wise yesterday? Literally can't remember. I tried to do something on that side project this morning, but I couldn't focus at all. Couldn't concentrate. I tried! But my brain just wouldn't cooperate, physically.

I got wondering about how measurable this frustrating bout of congnitive impairment might be, and googled for a quiz... which brought me to ∞ humanbenchmark.com ∞, where you can do a battery of short, simple tests for things like reaction time or memory.

At the end, you're given results that show where you fall compared to others. Here are mine:

Being in the 95th percentile for verbal memory means I did better at that than 95% of people. That's impressive. The others, where I'm embarrassingly far below the average, not so much.

I'd be curious to hear your results, but presumably - and hopefully - they'll be much better than these. Unless you've been experiencing cognitive impairment too for whatever reason.

So why's my brain being so... bluh... words. Sentence, form. Yes. Think. Can't. Ugh.

I'm guessing the primary cause is sleep deprivation. I've probably mentioned in recent blog posts that I've been struggling to get a good night's sleep due to the summer heat (which is way lower here in the UK than other parts of the world, though the houses are all designed to endure colder temperatures; there's no air conditioning, for example). I feel like I'm half awake all night and start my days groggy and yawning.

∞ Here's an article about the cognitive effects of sleep deprivation ∞. I hope you read every word of it. I didn't even so much as skim it, personally, but who, when they link to a study to support their claims, actually even does?

Not sure what I can even do about it other than hope it gets cooler. I bought a tower fan last year and I've been using that, though clearly it's not helping to a magical degree.

Isolation and loneliness contribute to cognitive impairment too. ∞ Look, another study ∞, though I actually did at least read the abstract of that one. The participants were aged 50+, so not perfectly relevant, but no doubt being so detached from other people is actually a factor too.

I also thought about nutrition, and all the vitamins I'm likely lacking from my far-less-than-ideal lifestyle. I made a list of dietary changes I could potentially make. Who knows whether I'll stick to any though. I've been through all this before.

This brain fog's been getting in the way for a long while now, and I've wondered whether to go to my GP about it... but I just assume they'd ask me about my lifestyle, and literally laugh in my face at the answer because it's so obvious that living like this would make anyone feel terrible.

The worst thing though is that feeling terrible makes it so hard to change anything. What's the term for that, Catch 22?

There are a bunch of game-dev- and life-improvement-related things I need to do - WANT to do! - but I just don't seem to be able to. Beating myself up about it would only make things worse, so I'll just try to find some peace and try to recover... though I feel I've been doing that for ages now and not really getting anywhere.

At the very least, I'll just try to sleep early tonight, see if that makes any difference at all. Doubt I'll be able to achieve any goals today though. Maybe I'll just try to finally finish Tears of the Kingdom, get that out of the way...

And I'm curious to know your results on those tests and how you feel about what you got!

12 COMMENTS

Noppe5~1Y

I wouldn't worry too much about those online test results.
These are the ones I got [LINK]
Most tests I just did once and kept the score. Some of the scores I got seem surprisingly low to me. I used to play some games competitively at a pretty high level, so I'd imagine reaction time would at least have to be average right? But nope, because the percentile results are complete bs if you use them as a cognitive impairment metric.

All tests have user results heavily skewed to really good scores. If you look up the average reaction time it's +-250ms (possibly with screen delay accounted for which the website does not). The description of the number memory test even says the average score is 7 when the graph shows around 9.

The site is kind of gamified. People will try to improve their score and redo a test until they get a score they're happy with. I can't know for sure how they get their user score distribution, but only the scores you decide to save generate a post request, so it can't be representative.

Didn't find much online explaining the site, but I did see the communities which linked to the site. Competitive gamers who want to improve their abilities. The reaction time test has scores of around 125ms on the graph. I'm not even sure that's actually humanly possible, let alone be common enough to see on the graph.

The results are super biased both for its userbase and saved test result selection. Even if that wasn't the case the test still wouldn't say that much. It's similar to IQ tests where you really need to wonder what the result actually means. Simply taking a bunch of caffeinated drinks or even drugs would give you a significant score boost.

For cognitive impairment I wouldn't call the results you got useful in any way. If you had an accident and retook the tests it would be a good way to measure damage and track recovery because you could actually compare it to something meaningful.

I wouldn't worry too much about those online test results.
These are the ones I got https://imgur.com/a/xvlXDjn
Most tests I just did once and kept the score. Some of the scores I got seem surprisingly low to me. I used to play some games competitively at a pretty high level, so I'd imagine reaction time would at least have to be average right? But nope, because the percentile results are complete bs if you use them as a cognitive impairment metric.

All tests have user results heavily skewed to really good scores. If you look up the average reaction time it's +-250ms (possibly with screen delay accounted for which the website does not). The description of the number memory test even says the average score is 7 when the graph shows around 9.

The site is kind of gamified. People will try to improve their score and redo a test until they get a score they're happy with. I can't know for sure how they get their user score distribution, but only the scores you decide to save generate a post request, so it can't be representative.

Didn't find much online explaining the site, but I did see the communities which linked to the site. Competitive gamers who want to improve their abilities. The reaction time test has scores of around 125ms on the graph. I'm not even sure that's actually humanly possible, let alone be common enough to see on the graph.

The results are super biased both for its userbase and saved test result selection. Even if that wasn't the case the test still wouldn't say that much. It's similar to IQ tests where you really need to wonder what the result actually means. Simply taking a bunch of caffeinated drinks or even drugs would give you a significant score boost.

For cognitive impairment I wouldn't call the results you got useful in any way. If you had an accident and retook the tests it would be a good way to measure damage and track recovery because you could actually compare it to something meaningful.

Tobias 1115~1Y

I assumed people would redo the tests over and over to improve their results, though I hadn't considered that it'd be something competitive gamers would actively be linking to and using to train! That'd definitely skew the results.

I was surprised at how poorly I scored on these - I expected below average, but not that far below average - though looking back, the two I did well at are things it's unlikely the competitive gamers are likely to be repeatedly training, so that makes sense of that.

I was already feeling cognitively impaired and just wanted something that could demonstrate that numerically somehow, though it's a bit pointless if I didn't have my own performance in a better state of mind to compare to. I'd be curious to try these again when (hopefully there'll be a 'when') I feel more on the ball.

PierceWickstorm29~1Y

I'm not entirely too proud of my results.

Verbal Memory: 126 points
Typing: 42 WPM (Did it make you do the one on giraffes, too?)
Sequence Memory: 9 points
Number Memory: 9 points
Visual Memory: 10 points
Aim Trainer: 635 ms (To be fair, I wasn't using my regular mouse)
Chimp Test: 8 points
Reaction Time: 316 ms (Again, not using my regular mouse, and I'm sure my reaction time is a lot faster in dodgeball)

Also, I just got Tears of the Kingdom. I set my first invention on fire. And I'm so proud of it.

Tobias 1115~1Y

The text it made me type was from Avatar: The Last Airbender, of all things!

astralwolf92~1Y

I live in a tropical hot region without AC. Things I do when it’s too hot:
- sleep naked // boxers only
- open the windows on the top floor or current floor // curtains for heat dissipation . Open your room door.
- move your bed closer to the fan // sleep under the fan

Tobias 1115~1Y

I already do all of those things, though I still struggle to sleep.

IloveMardek7~1Y

Try doucing yourself in a really cold shower before sleeping to bring your body heat down.

if you're going to sleep at 0:00 AM, it's much hotter compared to 4:00 AM.

Try to avoid working before going to sleep if possible, because when you work, your brain produces certain chemicals keep you awake.

I know it can be hard to stay away from your phone and laptop, but try to avoid using your phone and laptop an hour before you sleep, because the blue light from phone and computer makes your brain think it needs to stay awake

astralwolf92~1Y

That’s really tough. I’ve never been in that situation yet personally. Maybe try a dehumidifier for the room? They have disposable ones

kidupiscean37~1Y

Hope this helps you a bit:
[LINK]

Tama_Yoshi82~1Y

Reminds me of Brain Age. I know enough about these kinds of tests from my cognitive psych classes that they are not rigorous enough, but it still gets the juices going. Doing them multiple time probably "reawakens" certain parts of your brain, the way Brain Age claimed it did.

The most notable things I notice is that reaction time and aim are very dependent on medium. For reaction time, input lag is going to be significant if you have a laggy display (something which rhythm games like Guitar Hero had to offer a configuration to deal with).

I think I recall reaction time to be very static and hard to train. I wonder if it's also hard to lose?

The most important is probably Aim, though, which I suspect will be massively easier if you are on a device with touch controls (something which is more likely now with stuff like Windows 11).

Other tests are obviously easy to cheat by taking a screenshot... From the lack of absurdly high scores I guess this doesn't happen, although for the chimp test it's notable that it isn't timed; you can basically rehearse the patterns like a musical composition until you finally "got it"; because of this it's less an exercise in memory and more an exercise in patience.

...And oops I lost the tab and lost all of my results D:

The most notable things I notice is that reaction time and aim are very dependent on medium. For reaction time, input lag is going to be significant if you have a laggy display (something which rhythm games like Guitar Hero had to offer a configuration to deal with).

I think I recall reaction time to be very static and hard to train. I wonder if it's also hard to lose?

The most important is probably Aim, though, which I suspect will be massively easier if you are on a device with touch controls (something which is more likely now with stuff like Windows 11).

Other tests are obviously easy to cheat by taking a screenshot... From the lack of absurdly high scores I guess this doesn't happen, although for the chimp test it's notable that it isn't timed; you can basically rehearse the patterns like a musical composition until you finally "got it"; because of this it's less an exercise in memory and more an exercise in patience.

...And oops I lost the tab and lost all of my results D:

Tobias 1115~1Y

Someone else mentioned that it looks like competitive gamers and the like use that site to train their skills, which makes sense considering my results; the two I got above average scores in were things I doubt those types would be interested in retrying over and over.

I thought having a touch screen would be a huge advantage over using a mouse like I did too. It's hardly perfect!

Mostly I just wanted to measure what I was feeling somehow, though it'd only really mean anything if I compared to my own performance when in a better mental state rather than some faceless crowd who are likely either 'cheating' or actively trying over and over to attain ideal results.

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