Session number: 7
Average n-back: 4.5
Duration (min.): 50
I felt like completing the test around 9 the morning. Since I never did that before, it is an interesting experiment. I started the test just after having breakfast and reading my mails, news etc.
Well, the first 4 tests went really bad with hit-miss ratios of 9-4 (n=4), 10-3 (n=4), 5-8 (n=4), 10-3 (n=3). I found that I was a bit braver than earlier when I thought I knew the answer with an 80-90% probability. This resulted in 1 extra mistake each time. I had to take 2 minutes break and continued. The next tests were 12-0 (n=3), 12-0 (n=4) with some luck and uncertainty, 10-3 (n=5), 9-6 (n=5). With the 9-6, I had a wrong sequence in my memory which was exactly regenerated by the software for 3 straight steps. All in all, this is not my day so far, I made more mistakes than possibly ever before. I just need to get more focused, so I took some minutes off again.
The next test was 11-2 (n=4), where I made a fairly obvious mistake, I heard a repeating sound and pressed the button ‘a’ (and then pressed ‘l’ as well a second later to correct my mistake). Anyway, it was enough for n=5 I did almost the minimum (8-4) to stay there when I decided that I should let more light in my room for better conditions. I did the minimum again with 7-5 to stay at n=5. I Now my average n-back is 4.27, there have been worse, but it is still a lot worse than before.
Another 7-5 (n=5), then a 11-1 (n=5) resulted in a jump to n=6, where I did a poor result (6-7). The next test drove me crazy with the rhyming p and b sounds and position sequences like 3,7,8,7,3,7 and thus the result was surprisingly bad (4-8). I felt it was an opportunity for me to do a 12-0 which I did (n=4).
I came up with a new strategy for n=5 and 6. It works like this: after a while, you get a feeling that the test is supposed to end very soon due to the time elapsed and the number of target already hit or missed. You have the sequence in your memory. What you now do is that you do not store the new incoming block coordinates, but only focus on the past sequence, which is obviously in your short-term memory and stays there as there is nothing else you need to care about.
The last 4 tests completed today\’s session: 8-5 (n=5), 6-6 (n=5), 10-2 (n=4) and 6-6 (n=5).
The final n-back score is n=4.5 which is my second best result despite the bad start and many mistakes I made throughout the session.
I noticed that the possible cause for my bad results in the past regarding the 2nd half of the sessions was because I just did not care much. Whenever I had an excellent first half, I just continued. If the first half was bad, I always came up with something that made me more focused. Therefore I have to make sure I will stay focused throughout the whole session regardless what the results are for that day.
Many people complain that they cannot do anything in the morning before drinking a cup of coffee. What I did was I woke up and I started the test half an hour after that. Since I never drink coffee, I am not a coffeine-addict, which means that my performance is better early in the morning, but there should still be a big difference between my morning capacity and the optimum.
Brain Fitness Pro working-memory training report.
This post was submitted by Zsolt.
Tags: Brain Exercises, brain-fitness, brain-fitness-pro, buschkuehl, increase intelligence, increase IQ, intelligence-training, IQ-training, jaeggi, martin-buschkuehl, mind-sparke, susanne-jaeggi, Training Working-Memory, working-memory