Test 1:
What comes next in these series?
The figures have a logical sequence, which figure will be the next one?
Scroll down to get the answer
*****
****
***
**
*
Answer:
A mirrored double 5.
Figure one is a mirrored double 1. Figure two is a mirrored double 2... etc.
What is common to all the patterns is the left hand side mirrors the right
What makes this difficult is that the our initial perception sees the whole object rather than the parts, the whole pattern is more powerful than that of our perception of its component parts.
This is the tendency that “Gestalt” psychologists of the 1920’/30’s made much of and symmetry was a very powerful Gestalt principal.
Test 2:
*****
****
***
**
*
Did you say milk? Oh well... that’s incorrect.
No worries... most people say “Milk“. The word seems so obvious it comes to mind immediately, though it is of course wrong!
Cows produce milk, but they drink water, part of the explanation is that milk rhymes with silk and its at the forefront of our mind what is more significant is that “Milk” is an associate of the word “Cow” and is one of the few word that automatically come to mind.
These things rarely happens in everyday speech, but with stress, distraction or talking too fast this increases the occurrence.
Try it on your friends to see what happens.