rat psych - "careless errors" in reading the SAT

During my year of living dangerously, doing SAT math prep off and on with C., I was chronically amazed stunned by the number and type of "careless errors" he and I both made taking timed sections of the test. In particular, I made repeated errors of "simple" reading, particularly when I was tired or the room was hot. I made so many reading errors that when I finally took the real test, I had no way to predict my math score at all: no way to estimate how many reading errors I had -- or had not -- made.

I eventually came up with a theory of careless errors, the details of which I've forgotten at the moment. I do recall that it had to do with working memory. Arguably the SAT tests working memory above all: all 10 sections put you into working memory blowout. I experienced working memory blowout so often that I began to notice a connection. As far as I can tell, you make more careless errors when your working memory is overtaxed (and you hit the limits of working memory much more quickly when you're sleep-deprived or overheated).

I've just come across a new study that I think confirms my subjective experience:

This study resolves two long-standing debates in the field. Does our working memory function like slots, and after our four slots [emphasis added] are filled with objects we cannot take in any more; or does it function like a pool that can accept more than four objects, but as the pool fills the information about each object gets thinner? And is the capacity limit a failure of perception, or of memory? [emphasis added]

“Our study shows that both the slot and pool models are true,” says Miller. “The two hemispheres of the visual brain work like slots, but within each slot, it’s a pool. We also found that the bottleneck is not in the remembering, it is in the perceiving.” [emphasis added] That is, when the capacity for each slot is exceeded, the information does not get encoded very well. The neural recordings showed information about the objects being lost even as the monkeys were viewing them, not later as they were remembering what they had seen.
Picower: 1 Skull + 2 Brains = 4 Objects in Mind

Failures of working memory are failures of perception!

Subjectively, that's what I experienced taking practice sections; that's what it felt like. Once I hit a certain level of tiredness, or heat, or working memory blow-out, I stopped being able to read.

The same thing happens on the reading and writing sections, too. The reading and writing sections are so taxing that you reach points where you simply cannot take in what the sentence or paragraph before you says. ^* I'm not talking about losing the ability to answer questions about the sentence or paragraph.

I'm talking about losing the ability just to read the words on the page.

I'm a 10
rat psych: what to do about SAT math (part 1)
rat psych: what to do about SAT math (part 2)
rat psych: what to do about SAT math (part 3)
rat psych: careless reading errors on the SAT

^* I say "you" because I know I am not alone in this.

If you want to score 800, shoot for 900

I mentioned in the comments that I'm sick today, but I was just emailing back and forth with Debbie about the SAT -- we're down to the wire here; C. takes it for the last time on October 1.

Here's what I have learned -- and I hope I'll find time to put together a proper post.

Working memory, attention, focus, executive function: all of these faculties are limited resources. Period. In that sense, your brain is exactly like a muscle: fatigue and stress lower performance. (Anxiety lowers performance, too, but for somewhat different reasons.)

If your child is shooting for a high score on the SAT, he or she needs to do two things:

1. Automate everything he or she can automate. SAT Math is supposed to be a test of problem solving, but I am now positive that the 800 scorers are not solving problems. They're getting right answers on exercises they can do 'in their sleep.' In short: overlearning.

2. If you want to score an 800, shoot for a 900. Ditto for 700: shoot for 800. Which is another way of saying number 1.

The reason to shoot for an 800 if you want a 700 is that anything that knocks out mental resources will drop your score by that much.

Now I'm going to go crawl in bed.

overlearning by WiseGeek