Personally I’m in better shape now in my 60s than I was in my 20s and 30s
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Even before the physical limitations I had great difficulty getting to unfamiliar places, because of my poor sense of direction.
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I’ve always been directionally challenged as well @firemonkey. That and my very poor driving skills led me to give up driving 11 years ago.
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I’ve never had driving lessons.
Copilot re Cognifit scores and driving
Thanks for sharing those scores, . Let’s unpack them carefully in relation to driving ability.
Driving is a multi-domain cognitive task: it requires attention shifting, working memory, spatial awareness, motor coordination, and the ability to integrate sensory input quickly. Cognifit scores (out of 800) are standardized measures, where higher scores indicate stronger performance. The scores you listed are extremely low, so let’s break down what each means for driving:
Breakdown of Scores and Driving Implications
| Cognitive Skill | Your Score | Driving Relevance | Likely Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shifting (126/800) | Very low | Needed to switch attention between road, mirrors, dashboard, pedestrians | Difficulty adapting to sudden changes, delayed response to hazards |
| Visual Short-Term Memory (66/800) | Extremely low | Used to remember traffic signs, lane positions, recent visual cues | Forgetting instructions or failing to recall what was just seen (e.g., a stop sign) |
| Non-Verbal Memory (100/800) | Very low | Helps retain spatial layouts, routes, and visual patterns | Trouble remembering directions or recognizing familiar road layouts |
| Hand-Eye Coordination (8/800) | Critically impaired | Essential for steering, braking, gear shifting, reacting to moving objects | Severe difficulty controlling vehicle safely; high risk of accidents |
| Spatial Perception (8/800) | Critically impaired | Needed to judge distances, speed, lane position, parking | Inability to estimate gaps, overtaking risks, or position in traffic |
Overall Assessment
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These scores suggest major impairments across all domains critical for driving.
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Hand-eye coordination and spatial perception at 8/800 are especially concerning: they imply unsafe motor control and poor distance judgment, which are fundamental to operating a vehicle.
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Even if compensatory strategies (like driving slowly, avoiding complex roads) were attempted, the deficits are so severe that safe driving would not be possible.
Practical Implication
With scores at this level, independent driving would be unsafe. In fact, most licensing authorities would consider such results as disqualifying for driving, since they indicate a high risk of accidents.
If this testing was done for medical or cognitive evaluation, the results strongly suggest that alternative transport arrangements (public transport, assisted driving, or community support) would be necessary.
Would you like me to create a compact decision grid showing which cognitive domains are “critical blockers” versus “secondary concerns”? That could give you a clear, exportable reference for how these scores map onto driving safety.
Here’s a compact decision grid mapping your Cognifit scores to driving safety. It separates critical blockers (skills so impaired that driving is unsafe) from secondary concerns (skills that add risk but aren’t the sole disqualifiers).
Driving Safety Decision Grid
| Cognitive Domain | Score (out of 800) | Driving Role | Risk Level | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hand-Eye Coordination | 8 | Steering, braking, reacting to moving hazards |  Critical |
Blocker – unsafe motor control |
| Spatial Perception | 8 | Judging distances, lane position, overtaking | Critical |
Blocker – unsafe distance judgment |
| Visual Short-Term Memory | 66 | Remembering signs, lane cues, recent visual info |  High |
Secondary – adds confusion, but not sole blocker |
| Non-Verbal Memory | 100 | Retaining spatial layouts, routes, visual patterns | High |
Secondary – difficulty with navigation |
| Shifting (Attention Switching) | 126 | Switching focus between mirrors, dashboard, pedestrians | High |
Secondary – delayed hazard response |
Interpretation
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Critical Blockers (Hand-Eye Coordination, Spatial Perception): These alone make driving unsafe. They directly impair the ability to control the vehicle and judge distances.
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Secondary Concerns (Memory & Shifting): These compound the risk, making driving even more hazardous, but they wouldn’t disqualify someone if the critical blockers were intact.
Takeaway
With two critical blockers at near-zero scores, safe driving is not possible. Even if compensatory strategies were attempted, the deficits are too severe. The decision grid shows clearly that motor control and spatial judgment are the hard stop points.
Would you like me to also design a visual flow diagram (like a traffic-light decision tree) that shows how each domain feeds into the final “safe vs unsafe” outcome? That could give you a quick-reference graphic for your research notes.
I respectfully disagree with this. Maybe it doesn’t improve with age for everyone, but some of us with schizoaffective disorder, even if only a small percentage of us, do indeed improve over the years.
I’ve lived with this illness for over 30 years, unmedicated or improperly medicated over a third of the time, and I do much better now at 46 years old than I was even just ten years ago, certainly doing better than I was in my twenties. I haven’t been truly manic or severely psychotic in a very long time, been 7 seven years since my last psych stay too.
Maybe it is partly due to finding a good med combo, especially my AP (Abilify), most effective AP I’ve ever been on, but I’d say part of my recovery has come with age. Well, I’ve been on aripiprazole in one form or another for thirteen years.