Two activities. Do them in your own time, then bring your answers to the group discussion. There's no right answer to either — your thinking process is the point.
Work through both challenges below at your own pace — each one takes about 5–10 minutes. When you're done, head to the forum thread and share what you noticed. Naomi will open the discussion.
These aren't tests. They're experiences designed to show you something about how your brain actually works — and to give the group something real to talk about.
You're about to see a list of words appear one at a time. Read each one as it appears. Try to remember as many as you can.
Good. Now — before you write anything down — complete this short task first.
Almost everyone does — and it was never on the list. Every word on the list is associated with sleep, so your brain filled it in. This is called a false memory, and it happens to everyone. It's not a memory failure — it's your brain doing exactly what it's designed to do: find patterns and fill gaps.
This activity is adapted from the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm, one of the most replicated findings in memory research. When people study lists of words all associated with a single concept, they reliably "remember" the associated word even when it wasn't present — at rates sometimes exceeding their recall of words that actually were on the list.
This happens because memory is reconstructive, not reproductive. You don't store memories like files on a hard drive and retrieve them intact. You store fragments and associations, and your brain reconstructs the rest at recall — filling gaps with what fits the pattern. This is adaptive and efficient, but it means memory is always an interpretation, never a recording.
This matters for dementia prevention because it explains why encoding quality matters so much. Attention at the point of encoding — being present, focused, not distracted — is the biggest modifiable factor in whether a memory forms accurately at all.
Take this to the group discussion:
Every morning for three years, a man drives past the same small café on his way to work. He has never stopped. One Tuesday, he parks, goes inside, orders a coffee, and sits alone for forty minutes. He leaves without finishing it. He never comes back.
Work through these steps before you share your answer in the group:
This kind of reasoning — holding multiple explanations simultaneously, suppressing your first instinct to consider alternatives, and being explicit about what you don't know — engages working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility at the same time.
These are exactly the executive functions that decline earliest in cognitive ageing and respond best to training. The discomfort of not having a single right answer is not frustrating — it's the mechanism. Ambiguity tolerance is a trainable cognitive skill.
Discussing your reasoning with others adds another layer: social cognition activates additional prefrontal networks that solo reasoning doesn't reach. The group discussion is not optional — it's where most of the cognitive work actually happens.
Take this to the group discussion:
Naomi will post a single discussion thread for both challenges. Share as much or as little as you're comfortable with — reading other people's reasoning is itself a cognitive exercise.
reMYnd is a prevention program, not a clinical treatment. For concerns about your cognitive health, please speak with your GP. © reMYnd by Naomi Ferstera — remynd.com.au