How objective are you at self-assessment and how is this, my favorite study, relevant to Parkinson's?

[MBAnderson]

PWP are continuously making decisions, on a daily basis, about what to eat, how much to exercise, which pharmaceuticals to take, whether or not to be vaccinated for Covid, employment, familiar relationships, etc. and accurate self-assessment determines our quality of life.

For example, perceiving (our) PD to be worse than it really is would have a significant, detrimental effect on the quality of our life. On the other hand, being a Pollyanna isn't helpful either.

I suspect most of us wish we were more motivated to exercise and more disciplined about our diet and lifestyle choices. Certainly, I do. We know that if we exercised harder and didn't so often excuse ourselves for our food choices, we'd be better off.

If only there were supplements for motivation, discipline and objectivity. It takes work and skill to be objective.

Inflammation is the enemy, but so is arrogance.

A new version published last week of my favorite and most enjoyable study -- The Dunning Kruger effect as per Frontiers in Psychology.

frontiersin.org/articles/10...

[park_bear]

The linked article shows the test but it also gives the answers right next to the questions. I was unable to test myself properly because I could not do a good job of hiding the answers.

Here the questions without the answers:

• If John can drink one barrel of water in 6 days, and Mary can drink one barrel of water in 12 days, how long would it take them to drink one barrel of water together? _____ days

• Jerry received both the 15th highest and the 15th lowest mark in the class. How many students are in the class? ______ students

• A man buys a pig for $60, sells it for $70, buys it back for $80, and sells it finally for $90. How much has he made? _____ dollars

• Simon decided to invest $8,000 in the stock market 1 day early in 2008. Six months after he invested, on July 17, the stocks he had purchased were down 50%. Fortunately for Simon, from July 17 to October 17, the stocks he had purchased went up 75%. At this point, Simon has: a. broken even in the stock market, b. is ahead of where he began, c. has lost money

• If you're running a race and you pass the person in second place, what place are you in?

• A farmer had 15 sheep and all but eight died. How many are left?

• Emily's father has three daughters. The first two are named April and May. What is the third daughter's name?

Also, after completing the last question in the test, participants were asked to evaluate their performance by answering the following question: “how many of the seven items do you think you answered correctly?”

For those unfamiliar with the type 1 and type 2 thinking referred to in the article there is an excellent book entitled Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman that is well worth reading for those interested.

[MBAnderson in reply to park_bear]

oh fun

[park_bear in reply to MBAnderson]

[LAJ12345 in reply to park_bear]

Oh I think I got them all right🤣🤣🤣guess I am a Pollyanna!

My husband does not seem to be able to tell if he is feeling better or worse. To me I can see if he is feeling better as he will suddenly show interest in something and start doing things he hasn’t for a while. He on the other hand always feels he is getting worse although there doesn’t appear to be a visible sign that he is deteriorating to me at least.

[park_bear in reply to LAJ12345]

Perhaps you did

Answers are at the link provided by MBAnderson

[Cleo16 in reply to park_bear]

I've never been able to answer those things!! Am I doomed?

[park_bear in reply to Cleo16]

No, it means you have good self-awareness. Doomed is when you think you answered them all correctly but they are all wrong.

[Cleo16 in reply to park_bear]

Haha

[johntPM]

What could be better before bed than a bit of maths (=math US)?

Measurement is so important I called my website Parkinson's Measurement.

parkinsonsmeasurement.org/i...

[MBAnderson in reply to johntPM]

Excellent.

[Cleo16]

Hello Marc I hope you are doing well. I love your posts. You have such a sharp mind and great turn of phrase. Take care

[PDFree]

This was fun!