Nine Brain Quirks You Didn’t Realize You Had

Greetings! I take exception to item #7 here. I have had the use of only one eye since birth. Not only has this caused me a great deal of trouble in being able to figure out where the front of an unfamiliar car is (say when parking), but I cannot see anything in those neat 3-D puzzles and pictures. Nor can I watch a 3-D movie. I can eventually learn where the front end of a car is after pulling up, stopping, getting out and realizing I’m 2 feet away, but it takes time. Also, most sports are beyond my abilities simply because I have no idea where the baseball is until it hits me in the head!!! Just some observation based on experience. Have a great binocular day! :)

I disagree with #5. I might have given answer #7 as being more probable than #5 because it’s existence seems to imply that #5 is really “Linda is a bank teller and is *not* active in the feminist movement.” Strictly speaking, it doesn’t necessarily mean that, but I think that’s probably the more common interpretation within the context. It goes back to multiple choice tests; you’re trained from an early age to look for the differences between two similar answers.

Which isn’t to say that people aren’t awful at probability. I just don’t think that’s a good example.

This is a poorly-researched article that has no sources to verify any of its claims. The author should be ashamed and embarrassed.

That’s not to say that some of these things are not true (or close to true), just that some of the items are definitely bogus, and others are so skimpy that they are more confusing than enlightening.

About #2: Its Chartreuse-yellow, not chartreuse.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_yellow

Mookie has a stinky butt.

you know, i smelled it for a second there, too….

#8 can’t be true. Not entirely, at least. When i am dreaming, i can (in the dream) often remember that i have dreamt it once before. “Only old reruns on dream-channel today..”

#4 is wrong, at least the hand part (well you wouldn’t call it two systems at least, and in-inhibition and inhibition’s are both controlled by the amygdilla. The reason your arm shakes when you hold it out is because your muscles are arranged in fibers. Imagine a large mass that is your muscle with many many fibers. Maybe it takes 100 fibers to hold up your arm. These fibers will get tired, and must be switched with one of the many other fibers. The randomness of switching creates times when there are 101 fibers holding up your arm, causing it to go up a little, and times when there’s 99, causing it to go down.

I think that both the commenters and the author are right in a sense about #7.

I remember hearing somewhere that you can have only one eye and still have depth perception if your dominant eye is still usable. But i am unsure on how to determine the dominant eye(is it the same as your hand?).

Are you guys lefties or righties and which eye do you not have control over?

I don’t get #1. The header says that max capacity is 7, but the next paragraph says that it can hold from 5 – 9. So why say the max capacity is 7?!?

Regarding #2, I believe they tried repainting fire trucks in Boston a few years ago… only to find that Yellow-chartreuse fades into the background in snowy conditions, and red was still better for year-round visibility.

No, I don’t have a cite, but it matches my visible observations.

Problems:
#8- Long term memory does not turn off when you sleep. In fact, reading or studying something before sleeping is a very effective way of making sure that info gets into long term memory. This process occurs while sleeping.

#5 is actually correct, very much so. There is a wealth of scientific literature on the topic of how humans are TERRIBLE when it comes to probabilistic decisions. Base Rate Neglect, Gambler’s Fallacy, Conjunction Error- the list goes on and on and on. (Research these, they are immensely interesting, btw).

#4 is referring to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Makes a valid point.

#1 is wrong- it’s 7 plus or minus 2.

This is just worthless junk.

Where’s my beer….

#8 is very wrong. Tons of studies show the exact opposite – memory is recapitulated during sleep, where memories are consolidated into long term stores.

To everyone who is stating that #8 is wrong, I think you are misreading what the author is saying. He is not saying that during your dreams, you cannot access things you know from long term memory but simply that what you are actually dreaming is not able to be recorded in your long term memory (at least not your conscious long term memory). That is why when you wake up you might remember your dream but if you don’t tell someone about it or write it down, it will fade quickly because it was not committed to long term memory.

On # 7, I would like to comment that it does not says that binocular vision is not necessary, but that the brain has some other resources to deal with 3D. It is not only the binocular function. Mayby AJ could explain that even that binocular is necessary, true 3D involves many more factors.

You can make an experiment: close one eye, in a safe, familiar, well-light environment; and walk around, open the door, pick a pencil from the table, take a glass of water and you will notice that you don’t see the world as a flat surface and you can, more less, accomplish this task quite well.

In #1, I agree and understand that as there is no specific answer, 7 is an average. So, I think is a correct answer.

Congratulations for this interesting post.

For #1, I think (IMHO) that there is no *correct* answer. It may depend on the subject, the particular experience, the state (tired, stressed, distracted), …

I think, after re-reading the posts and the classic article, that it is a good response: More less 7, about 7, between 5 and 9, 7 plus/minus 2. Maybe even between 4 and 10, maybe someone can only record 4 things and other, 11; who knows.

The important (or interesting) thing, I think, is that we have a (short) limit in our immediate memory. So, it is natural if you can’t remember all the 16 digits of a credit card as easily as a six digit phone number.

By the way, I saw a program at Disc Ch about memory. It said that it is easy, in some circumstances, to forget something or to remember something that didn’t occurred as if it was true.

Thanks again.

You can trick your mind to remember more than seven things by reducing the number of actual things to less that seven. Thus you can remember a credit card number as 4 sets of 4 digits each. Easy. Same with your social security number. You can remember someone else’s number instantly because it’s only 3 things ###, ##, and ####.

As for “Linda” – the ONLY item in the list that is “probable” at all is the that she is in the League of Women Voters. All of those other items conflict with being a schoolteacher to some degree, since that is a full-time job. Therefore it’s more likely that she is a social work, than she is a bank teller, which is another full time job and an obvious conflict. It is a bad example, and it doesn’t really support the conclusion. Deal or No Deal is the proof that people don’t understand probability.

what about procedural memory?

It’s like you know me better than I know me!

#5 (the probability one) is very true, and even though this example is the best, it is certainly valid.

About whether #1 is titled wrong or not, I think it is ok to say that as he means your short-term memory [probably] has a max capacity of 7.

Along with the short term memory holding 7 + or – 2 the rest of Miller’s research says it holds chunks of information. Many people make the mistake of thinking that’s why phone #’s are 7 digits and zip codes are 5. However, in reality we almost never say a phone number as 7 independent items. We don’t say “9-8-7-6-5-4-3″. Most people say a phone number as “987-65-43″. So instead of 7 chunks you have 3. Likewise zip codes are not read as 5 separate digits. It’s usually “902-10″ or two chunks. If you really want try 7 items try listing the 7 dwarfs or the 7 deadly sins.

To quote Edward Tufte (great discussion at that link):
Now and then the narrow bandwidth of lists presented on computer screens and bullet points on PowerPoint slides is said to be a virtue, a claim justified by loose reference to George Miller’s classic 1956 paper “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.” That essay reviews psychological experiments that discovered people had a hard time remembering more than about 7 unrelated pieces of really dull data all at once. These studies on memorizing nonsense then led some interface designers to conclude that only 7 items belong on a list or a slide, a conclusion which can be sustained only by not reading the paper. In fact Miller’s paper neither states nor implies rules for the amount of information to be shown in a presentation (except possibly for slides that consist of nonsense syllables that the audience must memorize and repeat back to a psychologist). Indeed, the deep point of Miller’s paper is to suggest strategies, such as placing information within a context, that extend the reach of memory beyond tiny clumps of data.

From George Miller, about his 1965 study:
But the point was that 7 was a limit for the discrimination of unidimensional stimuli (pitches, loudness, brightness, etc.) and also a limit for immediate recall, neither of which has anything to do with a person’s capacity to comprehend printed text.

Is it possible for some people to learn better sitting down than standing up? Lets say in a work envoronment, making pizza may seem easy or working in an office environement. Is it possible that your brain or some peoples brains just don’t function if they have a job standing verses sitting?

All 3D projection or display technologies rely on presenting the left and right eye with images of a scene taken from slightly different perspectives. They mimic just how the brain receives images of the real world from a slightly different perspective (distance between eyes). It implies that binocular vision plays a very important part in quality 3D depth perception.
The is a detailed explanation of how one 3D display technology from Philips works. http://www.presentationtek.com/2007/11/11/philips-wowvx-3d-display-technology/

Personally I like the scientific papers that state that it has just been discovered that multiple hard blows to the head can sometimes cause brain damage.

This is evidence of researchers total lack of common sense, and that their inability to to understand the word “Obvious” tells us that they don’t live in the same reality as we do. It also explains the masses of scientific papers stating the obvious as though the obvious were some new discovery.

ugg outlet laarzen is niet een naam, maar echt beroemd alomtegenwoordige symbool van de wereld omdat ze zo slim en comfortabeler. In het bijzonder Australië boot “Ugg laarzen” betekent, schapenvacht Daiwa oneven kijkt. De originele “Ugg” is de “lelijk” slang. Dankzij zijn enorme omvang en het ziet er vreemd dat zwarte stip op een paar laarzen is een fashion statement. Bovendien, de gids is meer van een comfort, flexibele boot gevonden gemeenschappelijke markt dan de andere. Deze dagen, zijn de merken “ugg Australia”, is een Amerikaanse eigendom van het bedrijf. Laarzen werd geboren tijdens de oorlog, piloten dragen een fleece gevoerde vliegen deze laarzen, maatschappelijk algemeen bekend als de rijke begint Ugg shoes.

Australia ugg Bovendien 30-warm en comfortabel laarzen op hun voeten van het koude weer en de ruwe methodes, die ze moeten uitvoeren de Australian Shepherd. Later in Australië surfers in de 1960 van de 20e eeuw ijs deze producten van golf rijden, aangezien ze helpen hen hun voeten warm te houden. Het maakt niet uit hoe je ze belt “Schapenvacht laarzen” of “ugg boots”, zijn ze ongelooflijk warm en zacht. Zij zijn ook een ernstige klap, trend niti, en vele beroemdheden geworden in de afgelopen jaren. Deze producten zijn gemaakt van hoogwaardig schapen bekend als twin gezichten, van zowel interne als externe middelen om op te treden. Deze technologieën om te werken en Wicks geleid tot droog de voeten laarzen.Uggs Sheepskin Boots

Cheapest Ugg Boots In feite, Mouton eigenschappen en waterdichtheid alleen. Dat is waarom sterke en Hardy, het enige resultaat van splicing is zeer sterk en duurzaam laarzen. Deze laars is zeer licht in gewicht, hoewel ziet er zeer zwaar. Echt, als we in deze laarzen lopen, we voelen dat wij zouguang onze voeten. Deze laarzen zijn niet toegestaan modderig en natte weersomstandigheden, dus we willen voorkomen dat dit soort weer en de boot. Deze laarzen beginnen in Australië populaire beign en en helemaal over de wereld en het is nu in boot industrie gebracht aan populariteit. Morgens en stijl is attractief en meer verschilt van andere laarzen. Zodat het zo lang duren, is het gemaakt door de materialen van de hoogste kwaliteit. Ugg boots kan worden gebruikt voor alle soorten mannen UGG Outlet.