A bug in our brains

[SkeLeton]

Here's a little test, please no cheatting

Read the following text and count the number of "F":

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-
IC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Go down only if you finished counting them.....















How many where there? Three?
Nope, SIX! and it's not a joke.


The explaination is that the brain, for some mysterious reason can't process "OF"

Whoever that can find the 6 "F" at the first shot is a genius, 3 is the normal, and less than 3 is for the 'slow' people

Sadly there aren't any patches for this

 

[Chet]

Sadly there aren't any patches for this

Patches? PATCHES? We don' need no steenkin' patches!

Skel you crack me up.

 

[Jeff]

at least I'm normal ... I knew there were 6 and still only found 3 till I read the "OF" thing.

 

[Downtown]

I was happy that I found three!

 

[Cardinal]

What does it mean if I saw four, then took two more readings to total six?

 

[giff57]

How stupid am I, when I knew about the "of" thing and still just got 4.....

 

[Jeff]

How stupid am I, when I knew about the "of" thing and still just got 4.....

That means your REALLY DUMB ...Skel forgot to put that choice on there

 

[jordanb]

I got the six by looking at all the letters individualy and making it a point not to read the word (going backwards and scanning multiple times helped too). It would have been harder if you'd said "read it once" as I missed the ofs the first time.

 

[giff57]

That means your REALLY DUMB ...Skel forgot to put that choice on there

That's what I was afraid of.....

 

[pete-rock]

Six F's? Really?

D'oh!

 

[michaelskis]

Ahhhh.... it hurts my brain to think of things like that.

My question is, who figures out these things, how much money do they make, and where do I apply.

 

[BKM]

Last Sunday's New York Times Magazine had an interesting article on a "treatment" by a research psychologist who was studying autism. The idea is that by stimulating certain parts of your brain, you can develop skills similar to those of autistic persons with the "idiot savant" syndrome. This kind of reading test was one of those "skills"-the author made the same mistake as most of us-but when electrode stimulus occured, he immediately got all of the letters.

Interesting article-worth sitting down in your local library for a read (not sure if its on line).

 

[Cardinal]

Six F's? Really?

D'oh!

That sounds vaguely like my undergraduate report cards.

 

[LouisvilleSlugger]

That sounds vaguely like my undergraduate report cards.

haha..yeah, sound like this awful World Civ. course I took during my undergrad..it was awful!!!!

 

[The Irish One]

5 on my first reading. missed the second of