Ah, you could run the same (exactly the same) pattern to me over and over again and I’d surely miss something in it. I caught myself unconsciously panic that I won’t remember everything if there are too much things to remember. This actually could cause my working memory being so bad but it’s one of those hard works which really need a lot of concentration, will and stubbornity to get out of this “habit” (although I can’t actually say it’s a habit really). And, yes, my head is always full of thoughts even when I don’t want them in there. I NEVER have really “empty” head (probably even not when I sleep) and I’m not sure I actually am capable of reaching such state of mind. …
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@tatjana Everybody’s head is always full of thoughts! That’s just the way minds work - there is no way to turn off thinking. I understand about the unconscious panic…it happens to me sometimes when I feel like I am being evaluated, even if it’s just me evaluating myself, and even when it’s not about anything important.
@aran I’m impressed…once it gets to 6 dots, I just can’t keep it all in my head!
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I was thinking about this today (my wife says I have to stop doing this - she is afraid I might wear something out).
Well, the dot test is, on the face of it, a test of visual memory. (There is probably something more subtle going on, but anyway…).
We often talk here about whether people are visual learners or not. I used to think I was one, and while I think there is a visual element to my learning and my memory, there is definitely an aural element as well.
For example, if I look up a telephone number some distance away from the phone and don’t want to write it down, I will often say it out loud, then when I get to the phone, what I am remembering is more often than not, not the visual impression where I looked it up, but the “sound” in my mind’s ear of my own voice saying it. This has happened so often there must be something to it.
It’s not always necessary to actually say it out loud either: just “say” it to yourself mentally, and imagine you can really hear your own voice, and that seems to work almost as well.
So something similar is possibly going on in the SSiW lessons/challenges, at least in my case.
So (in my case at least) the “dot” test is perhaps not directly relevant to my success or otherwise in SSiW.
5.5 level 6
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Aran:
How many times do you tend to repeat a session, on the whole?
I start on a new session until I get too slow or make too many mistakes. Next day I start again but I note where I get to without mistakes and carry on with new stuff as I did at first. Next day I start from the time I recorded as OK and continue in the same way moving up the start point to where I’m happy with it. And so on until after five or six days my start point reaches the end of the lesson. It does require an effort and I do, eventually, learn from my mistakes.
I’m going to have to change, aren’t I? At least, I am now that you know what I’ve been doing.
I don’t waste the the rest of the time, though. I will expand my vocabulary into areas not covered in SSiW, generally by following a theme and finding words that can be used in everyday conversation. Which means I can find my way round town by following the sign posts, go to the greengrocer and buy a cauliflower, apples, potatoes, beans, etc and go to the pub and ask for a pint and a packet of crisps in Welsh. So, it’s not all bad.
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Aran:
How many times do you tend to repeat a session, on the whole?
@raymondkefford hope you don’t mind. Here’s something about how you can quote parts of the posts and posts in whole. Hw to quote
Enjoy quoting and replying. 
Yes, I marked Aran’s words for ‘Bold’ but for some reason it didn’t work and just printed the ‘*’ characters. Some software needs each line marking separately and may also need start and finish markers on each line but this discussion board didn’t need either of these in my previous post.
Yes, Mike, a large proportion of people have minds that work visually. They read a word as a whole, not as separate letters or even syllables, by recognising certain featues that distinguish it from other words. If they are proof-reading they can read the text correctly even with missing letters because the points they recognise are still there. Also, their language uses ‘visual’ words so when checking the spelling of a word they say things like ‘it just looks wrong’. Your language doesn’t betray a preference either way so maybe you are using both visual and aural ways of working.
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I definitely do not have a photographic memory!! I do use the ‘say it to myself’ method. I hear it in my head. I’ve never risked doing SSiW without actually articulating, but it might work!!!
@tatjana and I have sight problems, so I do think the dot test is not the best for us!!!
Yah. the hearing test like say a word, then add one more, and one more etc … would be more relevant but I have a feeling I’d fail on that aswell. SSiW is kind of such test just a bit different way and I’m lousy on it.
Oh, is there a hearing test as well in that working memory test?
I never got it past part-way through the “dot” test, and it wouldn’t go any further for me.
Just to clarify: I only use the “thinking out loud” method for telephone numbers (and similar), not for SSiW. Having said that, I’ve sometimes used it for SSiW when on a crowded bus.
I don’t know. It was just my idea as we often played that “game” in school adding word after word until there were so much we couldn’t remember all in the particular order anymore. I was never good at that though.
Well, you don’t have to, but I strongly recommend it…
The key thing is - you mention that you ‘eventually learn’ from your mistakes - but the fact of it, with solid evidence from good research, is that you learn from every single mistake as you make them - and that’s part of why it really isn’t a very effective use of your time to repeat until you stop making them 
I suspect it is relevant - I’m not aware of any research that suggests that we have different kinds of working memory - and there are question marks over the whole ‘learning style’ thing in general. We all remember pictures (particularly unusual, vivid pictures) better than pretty much anything else - but language is obviously a slightly different kind of knowledge…
I “remember” pictures, might be, but my “remembrance” is many times prety much wrong as I (many times) don’t see them well and if at one point they appear as they actually really are (I’d say when I finally see them right) they mean nothing to my memory anymore … But yes, even wrong vision can help to remember things eventually so it might be that we usually remember pictures better then anything else … being right or wrong, this (if I think more deeply) doesn’t matter actually.
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Thank you for the advice; I’ll pick up on my lesson and continue to the end but I may have to sit on my hands to prevent me getting to the mouse.
It’s not so much a ‘gear crunch’ changing languages between Welsh and English but a momentary pause. Oddly, I was reading a posting on a different topic which was written in French and I went through from French to Welsh without even noticing that the language had changed.
Thankfully I should be into the vocabulary units soon.
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3.5, and I found SSIW so difficult I gave up after lesson 2.
I’m not surprised my score is so low, as I have quite severe SpLDs, in the areas of working memory and processing speed.
Well, I find SSiW hard most of the time too, but I’m still surprised (and quite sad) you’ve given up on it. Did you do Course 1 or Level 1? I can’t quite say what could be easier but it might worth try Level 1 if you didn’t do that already and go on slowly. My result is 4.5 but I just don’t want to give up. I wish I could help you in a way. I can only say try it once again and keep going. You’ll learn at least something in time, you’ll see. Yes it’s hard and a lot of hard work is needed but it pays off at one point (if you still have the desire to learn Cymraeg (and any language at this matter) of cours).
Pob lwc!
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It was Course 1, and a while ago now, but I gave up because it all sounded like incomprehensible vowel sounds and I couldn’t suppress the urge to just parrot back the English at Iestyn (I parrot back at the self service machines in Tesco too sometimes 
)
I’ve given up on the Welsh for the moment anyways, but I’m actually learning quite a lot by osmosis from living in Wales, and seeing it every day. I can understand the station announcements at Caerdydd Canolog now, which is probably about the only practical use I have for Welsh.
I can assure you I’m no stranger to hard work - I learnt French as an adult, still take night classes in it to keep my hand in, and am now teaching myself dutch with francophone resources in between studying physics with the OU… I live a sad life, I know 
My plan for Welsh is to go back to Welsh for Adults once I’ve absorbed enough to be able to keep up with all the Welshies. I tried that once before, but I was the only true beginner in a class full of false beginners, so I was already behind before I’d begun! I do find SSIW a useful resource with the transcripts to hand, but I’ve come to the opinion that the SSiW approach as a whole is not geared towards the particular way that my brain is borked, and yes I have argued with Aran about this before.
At the end of the day, I’m someone who gets on very well in conventional language classes, with appropriate reasonable adjustments. I’m happy to leave SSiW to those who really do need it 
Diolch!
We need it and, most importantly WE WANT IT! (at least I do despite my moanings (upon myself) eslwhere on here.)
Good luck with whatever you decide regarding Cymraeg.
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Highest score 8.
Finished.
10/10
To be fair, I do have a very good memory which I think comes from having a form of synesthesia, (Number form synesthesia to be precise) and playing a lot of computer games.
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