Science in Action: Mysterious Mental Improvement


2010-03-09 arithmetic time vs time of test


What caused the drop? I can think of four possibilities:




4. I’d stood on my cobblestone mat 2 hours earlier.


17 Replies to “Science in Action: Mysterious Mental Improvement”

  1. laptop clocks are not always good for calculating time intervals. they sometimes ‘jump’. (the reason for this is that it’s potentially very bad for computer clocks to ever go backwards — software almost never covers that possibility) so manufacturers calibrate clocks to go slowly and then jump forward discontinuously. one laptop i worked with jumped 7.2 seconds once or twice an hour. if you get more than one such outlier in a row you can probably rule out a clock anomaly though.

  2. What strikes me about the flaxseed oil is how emotionally and physically soothed I feel for about half an hour after I take it. It has a calming effect; I’m tempted to say that it induces a state of serenity, or near-serenity. It certainly assuages hunger far more than an equivalent number of carbohydrate of protein calories does.

    I’d be very curious to see ANS physiology measures or other measures of things associated with calmness and soothing — oxytocin or vagus nerve activation.

    Also, does anyone else find flaxseed oil soothing?

  3. q, the faster-than-usual performance I saw on the latest day came from many individual trials, not one. And of course the problem you describe would make performance slower than usual, not faster.

  4. that’s interesting!

    i suppose the average of the scores is probably more to do with repetition of the task => being able to complete the task faster.

    it would be interesting to see if the average for a month would change is you only take the tests after an exercise.

  5. You should consider varying the math problems so you don’t get used to them. To help my arithmetic skills when I was a trader, I set up an excel worksheet which made random two digit numbers and added or subtracted them (also randomized) to a second two digit number. I hide the solutions column when I printed off the worksheet.

  6. I’ve used Spectrum Organic and Barlean’s flaxseed oil. I never found a difference.

    The math test I do is simpler than the math test on that page. I only use addition, subtraction, and multiplication — no division. And the two numbers being combined are always single digits (0-9). My test doesn’t have the awkward interface of the web test–you keep your hands on the number keys and type a single digit. And each trial is separated from previous trials by a few seconds at least. I go at my own pace.

  7. Timothy,

    Yes, very soothing. I started taking flaxseed oil a month ago, and noticed the calming effect pretty much immediately. I’m not a particularly anxious person, so I’m curious to see if people with anxiety problems respond the same way.

  8. it seems like you are measuring response time more than anything, with times in the sub-second range. perhaps you should do less trials of larger digit additions, so that you’d have to do multiple operations and juggle numbers. I think long pauses for “duh” moments ought to be included in the data.

    could you post your R code?

  9. ben, the reason for using very simple arithmetic problems is so that little learning will be involved — I already know really well that 3 + 1 = 4. Use of larger numbers will allow more learning. I don’t know really well that 17+39 = 56.

    I have posted most of the R code — see the R code category.

  10. interesting results. now to turn it into a real self-experiment, you might need a few more controls to turn it into a significant trial. placebo, dose-dependent use, time of day (stress v. relaxed times), some positive control (e.g. ritalin), etc…

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