I came across this article in the BBC news letter by accident. The lead to it had no reference to any numbers.
This pointer is what lead me to the article.
I cannot understand why the author is dumbing herself down. Does she seriously believe that it is difficult to remember a series of ten digit number code?
If I ask her for her mobile phone number, will she find it difficult to tell me the number? And from her name, she appears to be either Indian or of Indian, my part of the country, origin, all the more reason to disbelieve her self doubt.
Can you not remember your ten digit mobile telephone number, or for that matter, your landline phone number with country and area code numbers?
Not only do I remember my own but also those of people I call often – their phone numbers, miraculously, popping into my brain or rather my fingertips. This is thought of as quaint as most people now will store all numbers on their various telephony gadgets and just hit a name. I don’t. Mental gymnastics. And those numbers I consider too unimportant to know by heart I look up in my address book. I like the visual (and my handwriting).
Same with pins. I have pins and security this and that numbers dancing a right merry dance in my brain. Not just my own pins, other people’s too (yes, I am trusted). Mind you, unlike phone numbers which I just rattle off, pins I tend to anchor by association in lots of two. The more far fetched the association the better my recall. So, for instance, and one of the more idiotic ones, there is my one of my sisters’ year of birth plus one. As I don’t wish to be reminded of her more than strictly necessary I might have to change that particular pin. Too late too late – with a new pin for that particular account I’ll remember that I changed it because of the old pin … Same difference. Don’t worry if you can’t follow me any longer …
Interesting subject you raised.
Hope all is well with you,
Ursula
All is indeed well with me and I am all agog awaiting the arrival of my nephew, his wife and children. Barath’s son, dil and grandchildren. They arrive for a five day visit with their head of the clan tomorrow!
Coming back to BBC, I have often seen them doing bizarre things lately and many of my friends have stopped listening to / reading them. Sad.
I can only remember area code & landline number…my smartphone is just my servers code, the rest is a blurr – I know there are some 7s, a 9 and I think a 3…but if I’m with said phone, I look up my contacts list where I listed it for that exact reason (memory needed); yes I know my pins, and even sometimes my password.
But for me it’s not all that important – actually right now, a lot of things are unimportant…
Frankly, I am surprised but I have learned something now from you.
some of my memory cells, remember a lot of totally useless information – much of it from another era… if you looked at some of my woven wool items here and asked me the sett, I would instantly say 8 epi (now I have no looms and no I don’t want another loom)…
Catherine de Seton recently posted..Feels all weird
Yes, most people remember that many digits — probably if some context value as opposed to just being given a random list as they often do in memory tests (the value of those results which I consider problematic for just that reason). Some phone numbers with area codes + 1 and symbol + two digit code to release my phone number to person I was calling — they just become embedded in my memory from frequent use as did a half-dozen letter/number/symbol email addresses passwords.
Joared recently posted..RECAP — LOSS SYMBOLS — REMEMBERING
And this lady cannot? I find it unbelievable.
Maybe her neural connections are some how different since many unususual functions occur in humans as neurologists like Oliver Sacks have centertainingly described.