My son and I were having a little "argument" the other day. As is typical with teenagers, he didn't think he convinced me and I didn't think I convinced him. Anyway, the issue had to do with those traffic intersections that use what are called "demand-actuated" traffic signals
He's convinced that these wires are used just about everywhere (I think they're not) so if you drive up to a red light and stop and you wait a long time, you must be too far away from these wires. How do you know the wires are there? Well, you simply move closer to the light and suddenly it turns green! I tried to impress upon him that the more likely scenario is that there are no such wires under the ground at most intersections and that the reason the light appears to turn green when you creep up closer to it is that more time has passed and the timer that actually controls the light is now closer to changing the light green. Also, I mentioned that you probably don't notice or remember the times when you creep up slowly to the light and it does NOT turn green. You probably dismiss those times as simply a time either when a) the wires are broke, b) your car is still not close enough to the wires. This last excuse sounds like a "you didn't believe hard enough" explanation for psychic phenomenon. Anyway, I'm going to discuss this in class this week as an example of confirmation bias. Michael Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. mich...@thepsychfiles.com http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: @mbritt --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=41789 or send a blank email to leave-41789-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
