Recalling items in an ordered list etc
Recalling items in an ordered list - 5:22 PM 8/18/2006
Consider an ordered list like days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and the first 10 natural numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). It is interesting that the ability to quickly enumerate the items forward doesn’t translate to the ability to do it backwards.
For example, I can say ‘a’ to ‘z’ very quickly, but I can’t say ‘z’ to ‘a’ quickly. Here are some lists and my ability to enumerate it:
- Natural numbers from 1 to 10: forward and backwards
- ‘a’ to ‘z’: forward
- Musical notes (’do’ to a higher ‘do’): forward and backwards
- Days: forward
- Months: forward
Speaking about numbers and letters, it’s weird that I can compare 2 numbers blazingly fast but my letter comparing speed is very low. For example, given two numbers like 3 and 8 I can quickly grasp that 3 is smaller. However, given 2 letters like ‘o’ and ‘g’ I need to ponder a while before I can decide that ‘g’ comes before ‘o’. Is this because the set of numeric symbols is smaller (10 compared to 26)? Will backward orientation (practicing enumerating ‘z’ to ‘a’) help?
Word dump: random - 4:57 PM 8/18/2006
29 random words which makes my word count 1372:
| Kanji | Kana | English |
|---|---|---|
| しんさ | judging | |
| ちょくせつ | direct | |
| きんちょう | tension | |
| ゆうじょう | friendship | |
| ぜったい | absolute | |
| 入力 | にゅうりょく | input |
| 英数 | えいすう | English (ASCII) coding |
| きねんび | holiday | |
| すっぴん | face with no make-up | |
| めちゃくちゃ | mess | |
| あたり前 | あたりまえ | usual |
| 当たり前 | あたりまえ | usual |
| 当り前 | あたりまえ | usual |
| かっこいい | “cool” | |
| 入会 | にゅうかい | admission |
| びっくり | surprise | |
| おばけ | ghost | |
| おくさま | madam | |
| たすける | to rescue | |
| ぼっちゃん | son (of others) | |
| へたくそ | extreme clumsiness | |
| しかし | however, but | |
| マジ | serious (not capricious or flirtatious) | |
| バランス | balance | |
| ぶらんこ | swing | |
| からす | to exhaust | |
| プチ | small (fr: petit) | |
| 行って来ます | いってきます | I’m off |
| からす | crow, raven |
I’ve exhausted my randow word stock so it’s time to do a topical word hunting (colors, body parts, etc).
