Hello,

Got a problem I can't figure out.  It's me!

Seriously, I have always been very gifted with numbers.  This is not meant to 
boast (plus given the brilliance of many of the list members...), but to 
establish context.

I have always scored very high on math tests, 750 on GRE math, yadda 
yadda yadda.  

And I'm real quick with numbers, too --I can calculate stuff in my head like 
nobody's business.  

But here's what I don't get -- I can't subtract any faster than the average bear. 
In fact, I have to use a calculator for the checkbook because I keep making 
subtraction errors.  I can add and multiple numbers in my head like crazy, 
but ask me to subtract and I need a pen and paper.

What's wrong here? How I can someone add, multiply, even divide so quickly 
and yet freeze up on subtraction?  What mental task am I stumbling over?

I just don't remember enough of my cognitive psych to figure me out.

Thanks,
Jim

************************************************************************
Jim Guinee, Ph.D.
  
Director of Training & Adjunct Professor
President, Arkansas College Counselor Association
University of Central Arkansas Counseling Center
313 Bernard Hall    Conway, AR  72035    USA                               
(501) 450-3138 (office)  (501) 450-3248 (fax)

"Almost every sect of Christianity is a perversion of its 
  essence, to accomodate it to the prejudices of the world."
-- William Hazlitt 

**************************************************************************

Reply via email to