Linguist Logic: Why Word-Based Memory Tests Make Me Look Like a Genius
I am a linguist. That means I live and breathe words: I analyze them, collect them, play with them, and use them professionally every day. So when I take memory tests that rely heavily on recalling lists of words, I tend to do... oddly well. Maybe too well. Case in point: I volunteered for an Alzheimer’s research study recently—just doing my part for science. One of the first tasks? A verbal memory test. I breezed through it. Actually, I aced it. Perfect score. As a 70-year-old, that put me in the same memory tier as a 40-year-old, and the researchers raised their eyebrows. I was declared an “extreme outlier” and—because I had agreed to be part of the study—was promptly invited to donate some of my DNA for further analysis. I tried to explain: “I get paid to remember words.” They smiled politely and handed me the blood draw kit anyway. Now, here's the question that still nags at me: is this kind of test really measuring memory across the board, or is it just measuring one k...