February 1st, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Posted by The Foo in And everything else..., Fascinating or Weird
Here is a teaser/ illusion:
How many Fs are in the sentence below?
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS…
(look in the comments to see the answer - no peeking!)
20 Responses to “Are you normal or a genius?”
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The Foo said: @ 2:33 pm
February 1st, 2008
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.
CatherineL said: @ 6:39 pm
February 1st, 2008
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.
yoshi said: @ 6:48 pm
February 1st, 2008
I counted 3 the first time, then looked again and I saw it. That’s pretty tricky. I love this stuff too!
kristarella said: @ 10:52 pm
February 1st, 2008
Weird! Yes, it’s the OFs that people miss… I did. I’m happy to be “normal” though :P
Alisha said: @ 10:53 pm
February 1st, 2008
I actually got it right! I counted 6. Am I really a genius?
This was great though, made me feel smarter. =)
Natosha said: @ 11:32 pm
February 1st, 2008
There are 6 and yes the word of is tricky because the f is silent.
Neosapience said: @ 1:23 am
February 2nd, 2008
Actually, a genius wouldn’t bother counting them at all.
Cathy K. said: @ 1:40 am
February 2nd, 2008
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.
betty carbuncle said: @ 1:48 am
February 2nd, 2008
I found five at first time. Am I weird????
NathanSt said: @ 2:00 am
February 2nd, 2008
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
NathanSt said: @ 2:02 am
February 2nd, 2008
haha I’m dumb
…”people whose first language” isn’t english…
The Foo said: @ 3:32 am
February 2nd, 2008
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.
Janet said: @ 8:25 pm
February 3rd, 2008
Counted six the first time. But then I do believe I have seen this before.
Brian said: @ 3:26 am
February 4th, 2008
Just because you got all 6 right off the bat doesn’t mean you’re a genius. Just means you pay attention to detail. :)
angela said: @ 8:38 pm
February 4th, 2008
Yep. I missed the OFs. :)
Janet said: @ 12:08 am
February 6th, 2008
Just knew to look for them. :-)
Amy said: @ 9:30 am
February 7th, 2008
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.
Faith said: @ 12:51 pm
February 7th, 2008
Or “if you said six, you saw this a billion other times online”.
CatherineL said: @ 2:32 am
February 11th, 2008
I’m guessing that those of us who got 6 didn’t actually read the text normally, we just picked out the F’s.
Meiliken said: @ 5:19 am
February 13th, 2008
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.