Answer: If you said three, you are normal. There are actually six of them. Supposedly, if you got it right the first time, you are a considered a genius and your brain is well stimulated. Getting it right the first time is a rarity.

Hi Mel - I got it right first time. Don't know if I'm a genius though - that would mean I wasn't normal! I was half expecting this to be some type of trick question.

What is it the normal people would miss then? Would it be the F's in the word OF because people tend to skim through and miss out the smaller words or what?

I like these type of tests. I'm always doing them to make sure I've not started to lose my marbles yet.

I counted 3 the first time, then looked again and I saw it. That's pretty tricky. I love this stuff too!

Weird! Yes, it's the OFs that people miss... I did. I'm happy to be "normal" though :P

I actually got it right! I counted 6. Am I really a genius?

This was great though, made me feel smarter. =)

There are 6 and yes the word of is tricky because the f is silent.

Actually, a genius wouldn't bother counting them at all.

I got it right the first time, and although I am quite sure I'm no genius, I am going to bask in the nice things said about those of us who count six F's. Thanks.

I found five at first time. Am I weird????

people whose first language tend to get this right the first time because their brains have to function while using english

it's not a matter of genius, just the ability to pay attention

/thread/

seriously, determining genius from tests like this is immature and for people that desperately want an ego boost

if they get it right(4-6) they can feel amazing and if they're brains are lazy(3) they take solace in the fact that they're 'normal' and if they get it completely wrong(0-2) they consider the test stupid and useless

haha I'm dumb

..."people whose first language" isn't english...

I do believe that sometimes the brain tends to focus on one area and subconsciously blinds out the other areas -- like in this case. Attention to detail may play apart too but I think it is more of your brain playing tricks on you. Why it does it, I'm not sure. Someone out there has probably written his doctorate thesis on stuff like this.

Counted six the first time. But then I do believe I have seen this before.

Just because you got all 6 right off the bat doesn't mean you're a genius. Just means you pay attention to detail. :)

Yep. I missed the OFs. :)

Just knew to look for them. :-)

I think it works like this: people look for "f" words.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

We are trained to see not letters, but words. People easily scan the three "f-word" instances where f is the first letter. In "of", f is the last letter, and it is silent.

We are also trained to extract *meaning* from text, not individual words. Words like "of", "an", and "the" don't "mean" much, so the mind quickly forgets them. The sentence has meaning, and the mind naturally tends to focus on that, which in this case is a distraction from the real task.

I found all six on the first try, but I had to scan backwards in order to see the sentence as a string of letters, not as words to be read, and it was hard to do. My mind kept wanting to do the normal thing, which is read.

I think that if either the words or sentence were meaningless, most people would count correctly.

Or "if you said six, you saw this a billion other times online".

I'm guessing that those of us who got 6 didn't actually read the text normally, we just picked out the F's.

That's not hard to find all 6 since if you see them as shapes and not letters. But I guess not all people can find them when they only see them as letters.