Cognition and Testing

Just what is cognition, anyway?  It's the ability to speak, to recognize speech, and even the speaker.  It's also the ability to make yourself understood, isn't it?  It's remembering the past, remembering what you've leaned and known, and, most of all remembering to return to the present, wherever that is.  I think there is also an element of speed--the quick (you know, the alternative to the dead in "the quick and the dead") have more cognitive ability.   With all of that said, you have to wonder...

How do you know if your cognitive functioning is OK?  Well, you can actually download a test you can self-administer to see if you are functioning the way you ought to be.  It's called SAGE--that's the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam.  Hmmm, sounds like the blind leading the blind to me.  But I am not making this up.  Now, grading your test is not part of the self-administer thing.  Your doctor is the one to interpret the results, diagnose your condition/cognition (if there is any), etc.  But by now, you probably have a few questions, especially if you wonder if your cognitive is working as it is supposed to, or if you prefer, whether you are functioning cognitively as well as you have in the past or as well as you should.  Now there's a question--how well did you function in the past?  How would you know?  If you aren't functioning as well as you once did, how do you really know?

Oh, and how about this one--how well should you function cognitively?  Is there a standard we should be measuring ourselves against?  Is it Mr. Norm or Ms. Norma Normal?  Who is it?  How smart or not so smart is he or she?  Ohio State University (whose researchers created and study the results of the self-administered test) doesn't really say.  But now, some of that stuff from school comes back--if there's a test, couldn't I do better if I knew the questions ahead of time.  Oh, and if there's a test, there must be an answer key, right?

So, what does the test amount to?  What are the questions?  Well, you can go get them if you want, just like I did.  You will probably want to take the test, just like I did.  You won't really have to take it to your doctor, right?  But you might...  Now, back to the questions, I took the test and I think they are too simple.  They can't be sufficient to evaluate high-level cognitive functioning.  They are too simple, really.

I'm sure my doctor will tell me I passed with flying colors.  I plan to show it to her, just as soon as I find it.  I know I put it somewhere, I just don't remember where I put it.  Maybe what's-her-name can help me find it.