Digit Span Scores: Is it just me?

Post Reply New Topic

I have a bit of an issue:

Throughout much of my life, I've been given IQ/cognitive abilities tests at regular intervals as the school bored had required this, and every time they included the auditory digit span. This is where you are read a sequence of numbers, or sometimes numbers and letters, and ask to repeat it back, sometimes forwards, sometimes backwards, and sometimes letters and numbers grouped separately, and then there is a variation where they have you repeat back sentences that become increasingly longer.

I always get 100% on these. In the context of the settings of the test, I can repeat back any sequence of numbers and letters, forward, backwards, and grouped, and all of the sentences they have given me.

The way these results are supposed to be interpreted is that they are suggestive that I have superior auditory memory, and theoretically I am an auditory learner and should be able to understand and remember things people tell me.

This frustrates me because though I can repeat back these numbers and letters and sentances, I have NO IDEA WHAT I'M SAYING! Or at least very little.

They are just sounds and I can repeat them back because I only treat them as random sounds which usually have a very catchy rythm to me. I've very big on rythms, and and most sounds can be grouped in such a way that they have one.

In reality, not only can I not retain auditory directions very well at all, but I really can't understand much of what is being said to me when someone is giving me auditory directions unless they are very simple, because even though I understand the words, something just does not register.

I find the error in this test very annoying as it mis-represents my needs and abilities, and makes me wonder what other areas the tests are weak in testing.

It's worrisome because many of these tests are also used to test for learning disabilities.

How are you at math? Have you explored your musical abilities? You may find you have an exceptional gift in that area.

I scored high on the digit span subtest too. I score in the 90-something percentile ( 98th% on one) and I don't think there has been any exceptions to this on the five WAIS tests I have records of. One of them doesn't list the subtest results, but considering my VIQ score on it, i'm guessing the digit span score was pretty high.

Anyway....I am something substantially less than abysmal at math and my musical ability certainly isn't anything to write home about.

I think i'd be a better guitar player were it not for my crap fine motor skills and potentially worse-than-crap long-term memory.

maybe you are gifted with eidetic memory for sounds or other things. many musicans can remember whole scores upon a single reading or listening exposure. just a thought.

It is irrelevant that they are numbers because I only take them in as sound.

Musical ability.....well I don't have perfect pitch or anything like that.


I think the only thing this really allows me to do is win Simon games.

There is an article in last week's New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... utism.html which points out how people with autism can excel in some measures while performing very poorly in others. One of these is IQ testing, where the score is highly dependent on the test chosen. The old IQ saying is "To someone with a hammer, every problem is a nail", so the minority of individuals that IQ testing does not suit are a small inconvenience to IQ fans.

IQ testing is a very blunt instrument - just like a hammer, it is very handy for the right job (and moderately good at driving wood screws).