Differentiation Span
Differentiation Span
Okay, I got 100% 17-span on this; can someone do a study on me now, please. *sunglasses emoticon*
This task reminds me a little of training for the enhancement of peripheral awareness.
This task reminds me a little of training for the enhancement of peripheral awareness.
cevapcici | 3 years ago
Reply
what is the differentiation span?
after a quickie on google i find myself still curious?
where'd you find it?
after a quickie on google i find myself still curious?
where'd you find it?
medicalstudent | 3 years ago
Reply
That is impressive. I would really like to see in the executive function section, a sorting task based on the Wisconsin or even better, the California Sorting test
? | 3 years ago
Reply
Wow nice. I've noticed when I tried that task that I can only really remember 5 of the consonants; so if I try to remember all of the consonants, I can only narrow it down a little bit.
Is there some pattern that you are approaching with discerning the difference? Like by looking at the first and last groups to narrow the possibilities to one in most of the trials. Or are you doing it purely in the same way that you do the fast consonant task?
If you can get a 17 on the fast consonant task too, you can basically grab somebodies credit card information from a half second glance. Remember to use your powers for good.
Is there some pattern that you are approaching with discerning the difference? Like by looking at the first and last groups to narrow the possibilities to one in most of the trials. Or are you doing it purely in the same way that you do the fast consonant task?
If you can get a 17 on the fast consonant task too, you can basically grab somebodies credit card information from a half second glance. Remember to use your powers for good.
Whoopska | 3 years ago
Reply
lol I think my strategies were:
3-6: subvocalise the whole string
7-13: concentrate on the front and end sections, with some subvocalisation
14+: attempt to 'take in' the whole string all at once and pick the answer by feel
At 18, the letters start piling on into a second row, which makes things a little trickier (not that I think I could get anywhere if they kept on the one line, anyway!).
3-6: subvocalise the whole string
7-13: concentrate on the front and end sections, with some subvocalisation
14+: attempt to 'take in' the whole string all at once and pick the answer by feel
At 18, the letters start piling on into a second row, which makes things a little trickier (not that I think I could get anywhere if they kept on the one line, anyway!).
cevapcici | 3 years ago
Reply
quaternion | 3 years ago
Reply
cevapcici | 3 years ago
Reply
WARNING!!! Do not read this post if you wish to train on or test your differential consonant span using the current test. (This post is deliberately obscure to avoid a quick glance at it from interfering with the differential consonant span test),
Algorithm:
Let Options = {set of possible answer strings}
j := 1
While (size(Options) > 1 and j less than or equal to number of letters per option) do:
Examine the jth letter in each option
For each jth letter assign a count to it indicating in how many options it occurs.
Let A be the set of letters that occur most often amongst the options in the jth position
If the jth letter in an option is not in set A remove that option from the option set
j := j + 1
end of loop
If (size(Options) greater than 1)
Select one of those options randomly
This algorithm works almost flawlessly. Indeed, using this I can ignore the string flashed and look solely at the set of options.As to why it took me about 20 seconds at size 21, I was still developing the method explicitly and verifying the results. Plus, it was the number and accuracy that mattered to me, not speed. I suspect it is possible to do size 21 at 95% accuracy in 5 seconds or less on average.
Are you using the same method explicitly or implicitly cevapcici? I myself at first used it implicitly until about size 10 and then the method gradually crystallized into my awareness. In fact, I have a hard time not using it and so have abandoned taking this test; hence the warning I prefaced this message with.
Learn much,
quaternion
Algorithm:
Let Options = {set of possible answer strings}
j := 1
While (size(Options) > 1 and j less than or equal to number of letters per option) do:
Examine the jth letter in each option
For each jth letter assign a count to it indicating in how many options it occurs.
Let A be the set of letters that occur most often amongst the options in the jth position
If the jth letter in an option is not in set A remove that option from the option set
j := j + 1
end of loop
If (size(Options) greater than 1)
Select one of those options randomly
This algorithm works almost flawlessly. Indeed, using this I can ignore the string flashed and look solely at the set of options.As to why it took me about 20 seconds at size 21, I was still developing the method explicitly and verifying the results. Plus, it was the number and accuracy that mattered to me, not speed. I suspect it is possible to do size 21 at 95% accuracy in 5 seconds or less on average.
Are you using the same method explicitly or implicitly cevapcici? I myself at first used it implicitly until about size 10 and then the method gradually crystallized into my awareness. In fact, I have a hard time not using it and so have abandoned taking this test; hence the warning I prefaced this message with.
Learn much,
quaternion
quaternion | 3 years ago
Reply
After thinking about this a little more, I'm erring on keeping the task as-is. cevapcici's "majority rule" can actually give away the answer, but there's a drawback to this.
This is meant to be a short term memory task, rather than a reasoning task. As a reasoning task it really isn't challenging. But it is worth noting that you had to first "figure out the trick" -- which you did, and subconsciously, right? That would be one demonstration of your pattern recognition and problem solving ability.
Nevertheless, if you disallowed your brain to think about the patterns, and simply tried to recall which one you saw, it is still pretty hard to go much beyond the consonant span. That is to say, going beyond 15 characters on this task, without using strategies, is jaw-dropping.
If you cannot "turn off" using the strategy, that's fine. There should be a point where serial search from memory and pattern recognition from strategy cross over in efficiency. That could indicate a limit. Once we have established that, then we can look for other ways to work with the limit.
This is meant to be a short term memory task, rather than a reasoning task. As a reasoning task it really isn't challenging. But it is worth noting that you had to first "figure out the trick" -- which you did, and subconsciously, right? That would be one demonstration of your pattern recognition and problem solving ability.
Nevertheless, if you disallowed your brain to think about the patterns, and simply tried to recall which one you saw, it is still pretty hard to go much beyond the consonant span. That is to say, going beyond 15 characters on this task, without using strategies, is jaw-dropping.
If you cannot "turn off" using the strategy, that's fine. There should be a point where serial search from memory and pattern recognition from strategy cross over in efficiency. That could indicate a limit. Once we have established that, then we can look for other ways to work with the limit.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
"
Are you using the same method explicitly or implicitly cevapcici"
I think I was using it implicitly to an extent - and had begun to use a rough-and-ready version before you posted your explanation. The correct pick appears never to be the one that seems the 'odd one out,' at any rate.
cevapcici | 3 years ago
Reply
Interesting strategy, it seems the test was foiled in the attempt to give fair multiple choice options.
Whoopska | 3 years ago
Reply
So that's what you've been doing...
It is certainly possible to deduce the correct answer from comparing the choices, in which case it becomes reasoning task. Not a terrible side effect, but an obvious confound in isolating the task of recognizing orthography. Another thing to address in the next update.
Also, 20 characters in a glance (with no semantic information) is beyond what most people can take in. In this case, successful completion at high spans would involve reasoning strategies that result in a different distribution of response times. This could be an interesting result in itself, for what it's worth.
cevapcici's "majority" may be a more "intuitive" way of approaching the problem, but as a reasoning task, as opposed to an RSVP-based recall task, this might be a bit too easy.
It is certainly possible to deduce the correct answer from comparing the choices, in which case it becomes reasoning task. Not a terrible side effect, but an obvious confound in isolating the task of recognizing orthography. Another thing to address in the next update.
Also, 20 characters in a glance (with no semantic information) is beyond what most people can take in. In this case, successful completion at high spans would involve reasoning strategies that result in a different distribution of response times. This could be an interesting result in itself, for what it's worth.
cevapcici's "majority" may be a more "intuitive" way of approaching the problem, but as a reasoning task, as opposed to an RSVP-based recall task, this might be a bit too easy.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
"At 18, the letters start piling on into a second row, which makes things a little trickier (not that I think I could get anywhere if they kept on the one line, anyway!)."
Somehow I thought a 16+ span was inhuman, so I didn't bother to deal with the formatting, but I guess I was wrong.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
At 23-span (through majority rule obv), the answers don't fit in their boxes, leaving a blind choice lol
cevapcici | 3 years ago
Reply
cevapcici | 3 years ago
Reply
I take away your world record on the new version. At 25 I got 100% at 0.47 seconds and made it to 26. I also claim leadership in precognition because it was pure luck. :)
Just don't check what I got on 21-24 spans, heh. I did worse than chance with less than 1/4 correct and it took me about (1/4*1/4)^-1 = 16 tries to get to the next level. Thank goodness I started at level 21.
Just don't check what I got on 21-24 spans, heh. I did worse than chance with less than 1/4 correct and it took me about (1/4*1/4)^-1 = 16 tries to get to the next level. Thank goodness I started at level 21.
quaternion | 3 years ago
Reply
Hot damn, it's tough at the top!
btw I still can't understand how you got 5 boxes on the moving-boxes-about task. Pure genius or something more sinister?
btw I still can't understand how you got 5 boxes on the moving-boxes-about task. Pure genius or something more sinister?
cevapcici | 3 years ago
Reply
At that length, and knowing the strategy you're using, the task is most likely not doing what it's intended for: namely, stressing fast recognition while suppressing the phonological loop (inner voice).
But you win! It will be changed. And then you'd probably the only person to be able to get that span on this task.
But you win! It will be changed. And then you'd probably the only person to be able to get that span on this task.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
Sorry about misnaming the thread.
At >23 span, the task is a good test of luck - can we have a dedicated luck test?
It can be placed in the same subsection as the precognition task. :)
At >23 span, the task is a good test of luck - can we have a dedicated luck test?
It can be placed in the same subsection as the precognition task. :)
cevapcici | 3 years ago
Reply
"At >23 span, the task is a good test of luck - can we have a dedicated luck test?
It"
In a very weak sense, it could also be a test of priming effects. In fact, I'd wager that in many circumstances the feeling of "getting lucky" is actually a priming effect at work.
In any case, the differentiation task has been updated. The distractors are less distracting now, but the majority rule isn't going to work! So if your record is ever beaten, that would be very, very surprising.
In any case, the differentiation task has been updated. The distractors are less distracting now, but the majority rule isn't going to work! So if your record is ever beaten, that would be very, very surprising.
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
cognitivefun | 3 years ago
Reply
