Hospital Radio: Why quizzes are good for you

Everybody loves a quiz, right?

Well, the team at Hospital Radio cannot get enough of them. There’s a quiz or maybe a quirky fact or two on most shows. How we love asking a tricky question, like a bridge that opens in the middle, such as Tower Bridge, is known as what type of bridge? There you are. I’ve got you thinking already, and maybe that’s the whole point.

You have to keep listening if you do not know the answer. There’s instant relief or gratification when the answer is revealed or frustration if you happen to miss the answer.

Hugh Edwards and I have a show on Monday afternoons, and one of our favourite features is the Ultimate Quiz. Five questions from the easy section of the quiz book. We tried using the hard section but found we were both scoring zero, so we returned to the easy section. That said, we still score zero sometimes.

I like to think my knowledge of useless trivia is pretty good when it comes to potluck questions, but of course if the question is aimed at a different sort of useless trivia, then I am in trouble.

Someone said to me once, “You know what you know, and you don’t know what you don’t know.’ At the time I thought he had just made it up. I didn’t think for a minute there was anything philosophical about it. Well, just like in the hard quizzes, I was wrong. Apparently the phrase is a modern, catchier version of the classic philosophical quote by Socrates: "I only know that I know nothing."

I am told this emphasises the limitations of our knowledge and the importance of recognising our own ignorance. Wow, I’ve moved from an easy Potluck quiz to philosophy in three paragraphs; strange how my mind works.

When I researched the phrase further, I discovered it is also related to the Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias where people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. At this stage I was very confused; I still am, if I’m honest. I certainly know I don’t know anything about cognitive matters.

Quizzes, however, I do; having done a sports quiz for local businesses for 10 years in the late 90s and early 2000s, I knew how to pose a question or two. Obviously, it’s much easier to be asking them than answering them, especially if you are unsure of the answer.

And you know quizzes can be very beneficial by helping reinforce what you've learnt along the way by encouraging recall and application of knowledge. They are also interactive and fun, and regular quizzing can improve your memory.

Here at Hospital Radio, we genuinely feel that including quizzes in radio shows can enhance the listening experience and promote a stronger connection between the show and its audience. The quiz on Mondays is at about 2.35pm, and you can listen online at torbayhospitalradio.com or by asking your smart speaker to play Torbay Hospital Radio.

For us, it is a way to boost listener loyalty for radio shows and for those unfortunate enough to be staying in the hospital for a while to keep them entertained.

All quizzes are different, of course, but the concept of asking and answering is easy to follow, and if it boosts mental capacity, that has to be good news. We are all trying to prolong our mental capacity, and this is a simple way to aid the process.

I did a quiz on the Alzheimer’s Association website, and there it recommends we all engage in social activities that may help to build up your brain’s ability to relieve stress and improve your mood. I’m sure it’s not as simple as quizzing, but it might help.

Now I almost forgot; at the start I asked a question. Well, the answer to the question above is a bascule bridge. I’m sure you all knew that.