Just a simple counting test

72_Wilderness · 04-20-2005, 22:13

It's amazing what the brain can and can't do.

Count every "F" in the following text:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

HOW MANY ?

.... 3?

WRONG, THERE ARE 6 -- no joke.

READ IT AGAIN !

The brain cannot process "OF".

Incredible or what? Go back and look again!!

Anyone who counts all 6 "F's" on the first go is a genius.

Three is normal, four is quite rare.

Dustin03 · 04-20-2005, 23:18

i got 4, does that mean im special?

Spartan359 · 04-21-2005, 00:10

I got all six.

Radar Rider · 04-21-2005, 10:11

I got all six, too. Maybe I'm a savant, or something.

jbour13 · 04-21-2005, 10:38

I got all six

I have a lazy eye and I'm extremely right eye dominant. It has it's perks

I have no depth perception so that sucks, but when I wear NOD's I see no different and can maneuver fairly well.

Gypsy · 04-21-2005, 11:10

Got all 6...

Scrappy · 04-21-2005, 18:42

guess im just special ed....

**Ambush Master** · 04-21-2005, 19:12

SIX here also. This should have been a "Blind" test and the answer posted next week. That would have separated the "SA" from the "Non-SA" !!

**Airbornelawyer** · 04-21-2005, 20:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by 72_Wilderness

The brain cannot process "OF".

I think the brain can process "of" (though after about 6-7 beers I am having a hard time prcessing brain, or is it brian?). Waht the brain does is fill in the blanks by passing over filler words like of and the, so you can understand the gist of what someone is saying even if you miss various words.

It's the same thing with vowels.

Yuo can swtich teh vwoles in a wrod and pepole wlil stlil unedrsatnd waht tehy are redaing, because the brain focuses on the consonants and fills in the gaps.

lksteve · 04-21-2005, 21:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dustin03

i got 4, does that mean im special?

maybe...but you still have to ride the 80 pax...

CPTAUSRET · 04-21-2005, 21:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radar Rider

I got all six, too. Maybe I'm a savant, or something.

R R:

Your half right.

Terry

72_Wilderness · 04-21-2005, 23:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airbornelawyer

Yuo can swtich teh vwoles in a wrod and pepole wlil stlil unedrsatnd waht tehy are redaing, because the brain focuses on the consonants and fills in the gaps.

I now remember seeing an email about that. All these years my teachers have been telling me spelling was important, and the professionals proved them wrong.

Now if I can only convince them not to deduct points.
One of my teachers was correcting a student’s grammar and I told her that to have a more productive business that the people had to speak the local language and the dialect.

She didn't agree with me to say the least. We aren't running a business but I wish I had just kept my mouth shut.

edited for grammar and spelling.

JPH · 04-26-2005, 21:33

I got 4 but knew something wasn’t right about half way through it. Stopped before reading the answers and then had all six before I rolled down to see if I was right… that is odd though, because we use that word all the time.

Dose anyone know why we do that. I understand that it is a natural procedure that our brains use so they don’t have to work as hard, but why can we fill in some blanks and overlook others all together. Is there a formula to what we can miss and still understand?

**Airbornelawyer** · 04-27-2005, 08:44

As I recall from the e-mail to which 72_Wilderness refers, the first and last letter of the word should be the same, and you shouldn't change the order of the consonants. But English orthography has a lot of quirks, so there are practically as many variations to the rules for misspelling as there are to those for spelling.

Remember that languages like Arabic and Hebrew do not indicate short vowels in their written forms, so it's clear the brain can be wired to recognize patterns. Arabic especially relies on patterns and context to tell you what the missing sounds are. And not just vowels - Arabic orthography also does not show doubled consonants. For example, kitaab ("book") and kuttaab ("elementary school") are both written the same way.

By the way, this pattern recognition helps you understand English but makes it harder to learn another language. When someone is speaking to you you routinely miss some percentage of the words he is saying - mainly unstressed syllables and words like - because of background noise and other distractions. When you are learning a language, you are often trying to hear every word and translate them in your head. You miss a word or two, and your train of though gets sidetracked and you miss the next 5-6.

72_Wilderness · 04-27-2005, 21:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airbornelawyer

As I recall from the e-mail to which 72_Wilderness refers, the first and last letter of the word should be the same, and you shouldn't change the order of the consonants.

That is the email, I couldn't find it. But there is a slight problem with this theroy, method, whatever it is.
While I was reading the e mail I stopped and stumbled over one or two words because I didn't know the correct spelling of the words. It works if you are a good speller, if you are not it can be very confusing.