Comments on: Are you normal or a genius?

By: Meiliken

Meiliken — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:19:28 +0000

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.

By: CatherineL

CatherineL — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:32:16 +0000

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

By: Faith

Faith — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:51:09 +0000

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

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:30:23 +0000

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.

By: Janet

Janet — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:08:30 +0000

Just knew to look for them. :-)

By: angela

angela — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:38:26 +0000

Yep. I missed the OFs. :)

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:26:41 +0000

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

By: Janet

Janet — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:25:52 +0000

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

By: The Foo

The Foo — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:32:21 +0000

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.

By: NathanSt

NathanSt — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:02:37 +0000

haha I’m dumb

…”people whose first language” isn’t english…

By: NathanSt

NathanSt — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:00:59 +0000

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

By: betty carbuncle

betty carbuncle — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:48:57 +0000

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

By: Cathy K.

Cathy K. — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:40:59 +0000

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.

By: Neosapience

Neosapience — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:23:03 +0000

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

By: Natosha

Natosha — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:32:48 +0000

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