Could you recite the alphabet backwards?
Asked by
jca2 (
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May 21st, 2023
The friend of a family member recently went to a neurologist for testing, because she’s experiencing memory loss. Among the tests the neurologist gave her, one was to recite the alphabet backwards.
In discussing it with my family, we were saying we would have trouble reciting the alphabet backwards. I would probably have to do it forwards in parts in my head and then backwards, like “xyz, zyx.”
I am not asking because I doubt his diagnosis, because obviously the neurologist did a bettery of tests and this was the conclusion. I know his diagnosis is based on more than just this test, and she is experiencing issues that are obvious to us all. I’m just asking about how easy or difficult it would be to recite the alphabet backwards. For me, not too easy.
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21 Answers
Not if I were required to do it quickly, and without preparation.
I certainly could . . . if I were given unlimited time to get it right. It seems easier and easier, the more I think about how to do it. The easiest way for me, seems to me to be to think of groups in the forward order I know, and then reverse them a few at a time. I could probably practice that skill, and learn to do it backwards pretty quickly. The biggest obstacle, is my not wanting to make the effort.
That is, on first reading this, I thought, “oh huh – that sounds annoying and hard z – then a few I might mix up”.
But then I thought, “oh, it ends xyz, to that’s zyx, then . . . w, before that is v, which is part of tuv, so it’s vut, and t is part of qrst, so it’s tsrq, etc”. And then the wise part of me, told me to stop spending time and energy on this, but that I might enjoy typing this kind of answer to you.
My mom was given a neurological test. I was with.her
It was crazy difficult.
When I was maybe 11 or 12, I spent a week at a summer camp. Of the campers, one of the girls was 100% deaf, so spoke using sign language. She showed us a bit, including the alphabet backwards. The counselor praised her saying that she can sign the alphabet backwards faster then most hearing can say it forward. He then further praised by noting none of us can say it backwards and had us try. From then, I practiced saying it backwards until I can do it as fast forward as back, about 5 seconds. I still practice doing that today, won many “bar bets” as a result. True story, I enjoyed this question!
The other test they made the friend do was to count backwards from 20, and she couldn’t do it. That’s really easy, I think. If you can count backwards from 10, you could count backwards from anything.
Yes, but it takes some effort.
The alphabet – not easily. Counting backwards – when I’ve got stuff on my mind and can’t get to sleep, I often count backward from 300. That was too easy, so I started counting backward from 300 by 3s. That’ll do it!
Reciting the whole alphabet backwards seems unnecessary. Isn’t a part of it enough? It’s isn’t any easier when you are being examined in a clinical setting either.
It would take me a long time. I have to think about it. (Now I’ll have to practice.)
This reminds me of the Reno911 skit of a sobriety test of an impaired individual.
It was a joke. But about 10 years ago some folks passed it around and fooled other gullible FB users.
I can not only recite the alphabet backwards, but I can recite the Greek alphabet backwards. And I can recite the Greek Alphabet forwards while holding a lit match and finish before the match goes out.
(Fraternity initiation stunts).
I can but it’s not melodic….it’s rather clumsy.
Short answer is yes.
It would be super easy, if I could write it down… But. I’m sure that would defeat the purpose of the test…
I tried it and found that in some places I had to pause for a moment to think of the next letter and other times I had no trouble.
I can, and I can go pretty fast too. But I attribute it to the fact that I do lots of word puzzles and so, I don’t even know what you would call it, but I have what I’ll coin as “high alphabet awareness”, lol! When you’re trying to solve New York Times crossword puzzles every night, and you have to think of different litter combinations and go through the different options, I guess it just makes you more aware? Also, I have learned, to some degree of expertise or another, three other languages besides english, so I think I am more aware of each of the other alphabets and that probably in turn increases my awareness of our alphabet.
I am starting to practice. It is a brain exercise.
I printed out the alphabet backwards and broke it up into sets of 3 letters.
I did it!
Here is the pattern I used:
ZYX W VUT SRQ PON MLK JIH GFE DC BA
I will try it later but I’m pretty sure I’ve got it.
Nice brain test!
@LuckyGuy I was talking to friends about it last night. I have two theories why it’s so easy forwards but not backwards. One is that we’ve learned it from a very young age, going forward. The other is that we learn it in a song, when it’s recited when we’re little, so that helps with memorizing it. I know with myself, even when I do it in my head, not in the song version, I tend to go higher and pause where the song does, after “g” and “p” and “s” and “v.” abcdefG, hijklmnoP, qrS, tuV, wX, yz.
For some reason, I tend to pause when reversing the letters from h to m. Going through m,l,k should be easy. Just think of MLK. I can do the letters from a to g in one fell swoop.
It’s 100% because of how we learned it. It’s exponentially easier to count backwards…
I suppose we simply have a different relationship with letters , than numbers as well. If each letter was assigned a number, when we were taught the alphabet I wager it wouldn’t matter which direction we recite it…
I have memorized the positional value of each letter. I can instantly go back and forth between letter and position, but I still pause in places when doing the alphabet in reverse order.
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