After spending an afternoon filling out forms, I found myself once again frustrated by my utter inability to process and remember sequences of numbers. Gah!!!
I can’t hold a sequence of numbers in my short term memory for even 5-10 seconds. If you tell me your phone number, I have to write down each number as I’m hearing it, or else I’ll transpose some of the numbers in the sequence, or even forget some numbers entirely. If I’m manually copying a number from one page to another (like filling out the forms today), I have to check what I’ve written at least 3 times to make sure that I haven’t transposed any of the numbers. When I’m driving somewhere new, I always take written directions with me because I can’t trust myself to remember the street number (wait, was that 234 or 243?). How the bleep can I be good at arithmetic and calculus, but can’t remember a simple number to save my life?*
While I was nursing my headache from the forms and the numbers therein, I started thinking about other people I know who also have mini brain glitches. Like, I know a guy who’s smart and reads a lot, but is a terrible speller. And my mom loves listening to music but is tone deaf.
So, do you have any weird little cognitive deficits?
I still can’t remember my cell phone number- I now have it written down by my calendar whenever i answer the phone or emails and they want a number back…
I can only remember one phone number pretty much at any time- and that was given to my parent’s phone number from back in the day. Too bad I’m no longer living with them and 24 now… It’s the only number I got. Sometimes I write that number down, and my mother knows that if someone calls looking for me, she’ll just tell them "he’s not here right now, please try his Cell: It’s ______"
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I wish i could fill in that blank w/o looking over at the calendar.
*Actually I had this problem with my social security and student ID numbers, until I finally came up with a word/ math problem that I could better remember. So If I solve the math problem I’d get my 5 digit student ID number. I wish I could do that for the 7 digit phone number though. Hell, even the social security number took me about 10 years to learn…
As I’ve discussed elsewhere, complete inability to tell right from left. My brain just doesn’t process that information without going through the whole, “O.K., now this is my right hand, and it’s on that side, so it must be on the…right!” process. The weirdest manifestation of this was when I was reading directions out loud to someone, and the page said “right” but I actually said “left”. I didn’t even realize that I’d made a mistake.
About all I CAN remember are sequences of numbers. What month was my oldest born in? Her birthday is 52385 (the ‘05’ is implied–I’m not THAT crippled) so (moments later, after counting from January), so I guess it was May.
OTOH, my wife has the Procession of the Equinoxes built into her brain and can write a star chart off the top of her head, though she doesn’t believe in astrology. It comes in handy when I ask her, “There is a bright star about 60 degrees up and to the southwest. What is it?” It only takes her seconds.
Oh, SpoilerVirgin, another thing I know is the cardinal direction. Never use left or right when you can use east or west.
I am completely unable to remember the names of people when they are introduced to me or when they come up and introduce themselves. If I happen to hear their names in some other context, I usually remember, but if we actually had a conversation, I draw a blank.
Sidney, I have the opposite problem. I can recall long strings of numbers very easily, but I’m unable to perform anything more complicated than addition or subtraction. You can explain it to me and I’ll understand it - for five minutes. After that, you have to start over from scratch. It’s like having short term memory loss.
Now, I’m more gifted in the verbal department, and I’ve realized that I don’t actually visualize numbers as numbers (746637) but words (sevenfoursixsixthreeseven). And words, I can do. Numbers? No way.
I’m kind of the same way. If someone tells me their name and then I have some alone time for a while, I can process it a bit and remember it. But if they tell me their name and then we continue in conversation, it’ll be gone within seconds.
If the OP’s deficit is a deficit it’s a very common one. I think it is just a combination of lack of intent and lack of technique in remembering number strings.
I used to be considered a marvel because I never wrote down phone numbers but could recall them after hearing them once. Rather than look up numbers people would just ask me. The “knack”, which I didn’t consciously learn, was to look at number strings as patterns. For instance an internet transaction I did today gave me a reference number of 24578664 and I can just “see” that - single digits going up from 2 to 8 then double digit down and down again. It even has a beat in it where the numbers start going down. Longer to try to explain than say the number.
Anyhow now that I have a phone in my pocket if someone gives me their number I just add it to my telephone’s phone book. Someone asked me a friend’s number a few days ago and even though we communicate several times a week, I had absolutely no idea. However I still remember every landline number at every address I have lived even as a kid.
I don’t have any ability to “see” numbers as intervals or patterns with beats in them. That would be cool, though. I do “see” music that way, though, so I know what you mean.
I think my issue with numbers is worse than average because it became something of a joke at my last workplace, where cases were assigned numbers and related cases didn’t necessarily have related or sequential numbers. My co-workers could remember case “A” by its number but I always had to rely on other methods like searching the database by keywords, or referring to charts that showed the relationships. It wasn’t an impediment to my work but my colleagues thought it was funny.
My life changed when I got a cell phone. A weight lifted from my shoulders. I’d often take a few attempts before getting through to the right number. In fact I’m procrastinating right now since I need to call someone for a number, I’ll have to … write it down in the right order, and then call the numbers in exactly the right order to get through to the person. I dial three or four numbers then cover them with my finger and move on to the next set. Oh cell phone number storage goodness.
If I need someones number I get them to call me then save it that way. i also do the left and right thing, my left hand has an “L” between the index & thumb which my art teacher pointed out after I caught her double checking hers. I don’t know my landline number.
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