Interesting brain thingy

breadmonkey

I found this on a juggling forum of all places!

Count the number of F's in the following text (Just the text in caps, it's not a trick question):

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



Scroll down only after you have counted them!











OK?


How many?







Three?









Wrong, there are six - no joke!



Read again!




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



The reasoning:

Apparently, the brain cannot process the word "OF" and anyone who counts all six F's on the first go is a genius. Three is normal. (I can't verify this, it's just what was posted on the other forum.)

I counted everything arseways because I thought it was a trick (that's why I made it explicit that it was just the text in capitals) which ruined it for me. I'd be interested to know what most people get.

CrimE

I got 6 but thats only because I remember doing something similar years back.

Very interesting, I showed it to a load of people and no one got anything other than 3.

BrokenArrows

got three too.

Check this one out.

> Very tricky math! Note: This must be done in your head only.
> Do NOT use paper and pencil or a calculator. Try it.
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> Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Add
another
> 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000 Now add 10. What is the total?
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> Scroll down for answer.
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> Did you get 5000?
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> The correct answer is actually 4100.
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> Don't believe it? Check with your calculator!

p.pete

Probably not related to the same functioning of the brain but I don't think it needs a seperate thread...

Anyways, check out the following:
http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

This one really worked on me so I was well impressed.
Sadly they don't go into any detail as to why this happens so it's not of too much merit for psychology except perhaps to promote discussion.

John

The "of" thing is because the brain processes the word "of" as a single entity as far as I remember. It's like you see "of" and almost don't count it as two letters when you're searching for Fs.

The green dot illusion is due to the photoreceptors in your eye taking a second to readjust to fast colour changing stimuli. Basically every photoreceptor is specific for two colours, the colours are always opposite to each other (red -> green) like on a colour wheel. It's the same thing that makes you see shapes after looking at a lightbulb or the sun.

Myksyk

Here's another interesting example of brain processing:

Appralnety. rseacrh has shwon taht it deons't raelly mttear if wrods in a snetnece are all mxied up as lnog as the fisrt and lsat ltters are coerrct. Eevn rlealy stgrane lokiong wrods can esaliy be itrneperetd. I cna't atcaully rmebemer the ogrnial peice of srcipt wihch dmenotsaretd tihs so I've jsut mdae tihs up ... msot poelpe can raed tihs srot of wirtnig alosmt as qucilky as ornidray wrtinig ... Amzanig ... ins't it?

Myksyk

PS: I'm personally convinced that the ability to do this is also linked to the use of web forums and their ubiquitous typos!!