Optical Misinformation and Brain Clouds

Yes, if may be hard to believe, but there are times when the eyes and the brain conspire against us to alter our perception of reality.

Let's see how well your eyes and cerebral cortex communicate with each other.

Optical Misinformation Index:

• Challenge 1:  Counting

• Challenge 2:  Reading Skills

• Challenge 3:  Color Recognition

Challenge 1:

Count every " F" in the following text:

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


How many F's did you see? 

Challenge 2:

How quickly can you read this (An exercise from Cambridge University)

I spmliy cuold not blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg.  The cnigiotve  pweor of the hmuan mnid is amazaing, aoccdrnig to a rscheearcher at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy. 
 
It deosn't mttaer what oredr the ltteers in a word are aarnegrd in, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the fisrt and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can siltl raed it wouthit a porbelm.
 
Why?

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey  lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.  Azmanig!  Non-the-lses, it clearntiy unedosrrces the imoprtncae of seplnlig and good redanig silkls.

So, did you read right through it the first time? 
Give yourself an A+ if you did, and a D- if you didn't.
 

Challenge 3:

DO NOT READ the words.

Say the 'name of the color' of the letters of each word out loud as you work your way through the chart.  

For example:  if the letters of the word are the color RED then say RED. Remember do not read the word itself!
 

This is known as the "Stroop Effect" a strange neurological phenomenon identified in the 1930's by Dr. J. R. Stroop.

Why is this so difficult?

The words themselves have a very powerful influence on the brain.  There is a form of cognitive 'interference' that occurs because the word, and the color of the word are in conflict.  There are two theories used to explain the Stroop Effect.

1.) Selective Attention: reading words requires less attention from the brain then identifying and naming colors  

2.) Speed of Processing: the brain registers words faster then it registers colors.