Memory! Yikes

I typically pride myself on having an impeccable memory. Except for when it comes to deadlines. And addresses. And telephone numbers. Ok, I have a mediocre memory, but in comparison to the rest of my generation, I am definitely above average.
Test 1
http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/bin/transfer
I got a 72/100 here. I'm typically not too happy with a 70 on anything, but I have to say this was a smidge more challenging than I'd anticipated. I feel like with technology and phones constantly at our side, there's very little need anymore to remember simple or complex things, its just inherent to look down and find it on our phones
Test 2
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/common_cents/a.html
Now this one just seemed to expect very little from the general population. I choose the right penny in under five seconds, not because I thoroughly studied the details or I'm some sort of numismatist, but rather I just recognized something about penny A to be inherently familiar. I suppose my brain had already dissected the unfamiliarity of the other pennies because of how common the actual object is.
Test 3
http://www.braingle.com/mind/test_letters.php
My memory weaned here about 14 letters. I have to say I'm disappointed in myself here, but I wasn't exactly thoroughly memorizing either. Up to 10 letters, I wasnt even paying real attention to the letters or their combination, I just knew they'd attach themselves to my short term memory. I think if I had semantically encoded these combinations the way I do with SAT words, I'd still remember them and they'd be just as useless to me as those SAT words. Sure am getting veracious with my candid vernacular now.
Test 4
9/12 on this one. That puts me above average, which is where I like to be. Once again, in comparison to my generation, i feel my memory is excellent. This was by far my most challenging quiz because I didn't anticipate that my brain would drop off the way it did around the 7th word. I found myself struggling to recall numbers 8,9,10 and barely did so. If I had waited a minute before putting the words down, I have no doubt that I would have remembered only 6 or 7 with great difficulty
Test 5
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/puzmatch3.html
Out of 20 pictures, I remember 14. Oddly enough, I only remember as many as I did because I threaded together a little story with the most memorable pictures. And it worked! Hurray for semantic coding and visual memorization. What a time to be alive, I tell ya. Anyway, this was an interesting test for me because I remember pictures with far more ease than words or sounds, which isnt uncommon. I didn't anticipate the hurdles I faced with words that were not present with pictures. What's most shocking is how my brain is so much more used to choosing the right answer from a variety of potential options. Guess high school has conditioned me into being ready for a multiple choice world.

Week 2: Political Personalities

Political Personality!

It comes as not shock to me that our personalities and political ideologies have such a strong correlation. Humans are at the core evolutionary motivated to support what improves our lives the most. I think people choose to believe they support policies and candidates that go beyond their own spectrum of wants because to adamantly state the inverse would be selfish. I have a fairly solid political foundation, aligning regularly with one party far more than the other. I also am a supporter of the internet conspiracy considering Ted Cruz but that's neither here nor there. Anyway let's take some quizzes!

 Quiz 1: Political Typology quiz 

http://www.people-press.org/quiz/political-typology/results/

This one was by far the most predictable in my opinion. I actually did not feel it was the best assessment of political ideologies because it oversimplified intricate and controversial topics. While most arguments can absolutely be broken down to their rudimentary facets, I felt this quiz took it a bit too far. It did cater to relevant political discussions such as abortion, gay rights, and racial discrimination. It was fairly accurate in my fervent belief in diplomacy before military strength, equality for all races, sexes, and gender orientation, and optimism for the future. My views may not be overly liberal on all issues as the quiz predicted, but its pretty frequent that it is. All in all, this one was no surprise for me. 

Quiz 2: I Side With...

http://www.isidewith.com/elections/2016-presidential

Now here's a quiz that took a substantial amount of time, made me really think, and had me questioning who could possibly agree/disagree on some of these questions. I wasn't particularly shocked with the results of this one either as I am a supporter of Bernie (more so in contrast to the train wreck that is the other candidates). What did surprise me was the number of potential and I'm sure popular opinions that some of the questions had. There was more diversity in the potential answers than I'd assumed. I was also caught a bit off guard at how vacillating some of my views were on arguments I'd previously been so self-assured on. I stood with Bernie at 97%, Hillary at 95% (so essentially Bernie's stolen policies), Jill Stein at 95% (absolutely no clue who that is), Ted Cruz at 22%, and Trump at 12% (that's 12% too much) 

Quiz 3: Open Politics, A Political Personality Quiz

http://openpolitics.ca/ppq/index.php

This was interesting because my results proclaimed I supported big government. I was so ready to contest this until I read the description. "You believe in the power of government to make life better. You may have felt that what the country really needs is for the government to get serious about the many problems that people face". They got me pegged. Although I do not necessarily encourage a powerful federal government (Sam Adams and James Monroe and I have that in common), I do feel at this point in our nation’s history, what would be most effective is if the government took a more influential role especially in regards to regulations of commerce. The other result from this quiz was fiercely democrats. By this point in the blog post, I think we all realize how accurate that is. 

The final Quiz: The Political Compass

https://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2?ec=-6.13&soc=-7.13

Now this one was more diverse than the other quizzes which was much appreciated. I wanted to know more about my political beliefs than how big of a Democrat I was. My results decided me as an economically leftist social libertarian This makes me economically a socialist (oh no!, that practically makes me a communist according to the Republicans). I identify somewhere in the midst of socialist and free market principles, my economic policies are still in the works really. The social libertarian title pretty much translates into the belief that each individual life is valuable, perhaps more so than the state. Once again, libertarianism and authoritarianism are two extremes that I'd like to find a balance between. This quiz was the only truly eye opening one for me that exposed how much I have left to decide politically before confidently voting this November. 

IQ tests & the Flynn Effect

Week 1- IQ tests
I got a perfectly average score on this IQ test. 104. This isn't particularly shocking to me as I classify myself in a fairly average intellect category when it comes to intelligence on a broad spectrum. I suppose the closer you specify, the less or more intelligent I become. For example, literarily and intrapersonally, I feel I excel. When it comes to math and science, not as much. That's the nature of intelligence for most people, especially high schoolers. This score could have been higher and I'm sure I would have been pleased, or lower and I would have been upset, but I don't place much significance on IQ tests. Yes, they are proven to be fairly valid assessments of intelligence, but I don't think one score can express that much about you. High school has programmed us to attempt to encompass ourselves in all types of limited achievements, in grades, in SAT scores, in GPAs. IQ scores like the rest of these assessments are just a brief glance into the complexity of intelligence. I was relatively surprised by the test in that it was not necessarily trivial information, but seemed to test the mind's ability to discover trends. It makes sense considering how crucial identifying trends and context clues are to our existence.

http://www.intelltheory.com/flynneffect.shtml

The Flynn Effect discovers the augmentation of IQ scores over generations and potential reasons behind this. Flynn didn't feel that there was any actual substantial rise in intelligence, but rather a more substantial ability to reason and solve problems. This is very possible considering how essential basic problem solving skills are on a day to day basis and as Taylorism continues to deconstruct the workforce, basic skills are valuable facets of the industrial system. Other possibilities are better nutrition, better education, and improving skills in regards to timed tests. These increases in scores are more representative of fluid intelligence as opposed to crystallized. The Flynn Effect also takes in account the standardization of IQ tests which are required so that the norms remain accurate. There are several potential explanations for this unique phenomenon but they all indicate to a general increase in human intelligence.