Mike,
It wouldn't solve all the design problems, but it's too bad you can't send
half of them out of the room while you do the "F's" first and the "N's"
second; then send them out while you reverse the orders. Then, examine both
sets of data with them all back in the room.
Al
Al L. Cone
Jamestown College <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
North Dakota 701.252.3467 X 2604
http://www.jc.edu/users/faculty/cone
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael J. Kane [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 1999 10:30 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: This is a test
"John W. Nichols, M.A." wrote
>> FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
>> SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-
>> IC STUDY COMBINED WITH
>> THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
>>
>> Now count the F's in that sentence....
>> ANSWER:
>> There are six F's in the sentence.
>> ...Many people forget the "OF"'s. The human brain tends
>> to see them as V's and not F's.
Of course, there are no data indicating that such a test
has anything to do with intelligence.
However, I do use this demo in my Cognitive class as a
way to bridge an early lecture between the topics of
research methods and perception. I have them count the
Fs in the sentence above. Then, before giving the correct
answer to the F passage, I have them count the
Ns in the following (which I developed to be as similar as
possible to the F passage):
Nearly never do the re-
searchers in labs in crimin-
al cases take time for
coffee breaks on the job.
Again, this sentence contains 6 "n"s.
After students read/count for both sentences, I ask everyone
who counted at least 2 Fs to raise their hand, then
at least 3, then at least 4, etc., until we reach 6. Few students
will have their hand raised at 5 or 6. Then I tell them
the answer to the F passage, and present them with the
hypothesis that is appended to the email. Namely, that
the Fs in "of" are converted to a "v" sound and so we
don't count them. I then present them with an alternative
hypothesis, namely, that our eyes do not stay long on
short words like "of" "the" "an" etc., and so it has nothing
to do with the way the consonant is pronounced, only with
what kind of word the letter appears in.
So, I explain that the point of the N passage was to control
as many of the variables as I could, and have the target
letter appear in similar locations within long words and
within short prepositions (in, on). I then ask how many people
counted at least 2 Ns, 3 Ns, etc., up to 6 Ns.
What I've found every time I do this demo is that few students
get all 6 Fs OR Ns, but students do seem to count more Ns
than Fs. Could be a practice effect, or it could be that
prepositions like ON and IN attract attention more than does
OF. Or, both hypotheses may have merit. We tend not to
focus on small words like these, and in such a letter search
task we may be somewhat influenced by phonology in addition
to orthography.
-Mike
*****************************************************
Michael J. Kane
Psychology Department
Georgia State University
University Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
phone: 404-651-0704
fax: 404-651-0753
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing
is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good,
as it is not to care how you got your money as
long as you have it."
-- E.W. Teale
