Cookie Monster was one of my favorite Sesame Street characters to watch on television while I was growing up (as evidenced by my quick decision to marry my wife upon hearing her eerily accurate rendition of CM's classic 'c is for cookie'). Oftentimes, during Saturday morning Sesame Street episodes, CM would put forth a puzzle made up of several items in a set. CM's set of items usually had a distinguishing feature which made it obvious why they were grouped together, except for one.
Cookie Monster's challenge to us? Tease out the one that didn't belong. To a human, this is a simple matter of intuition. You ask yourself, are there a different number of items (three plates containing two cookies and one plate with three cookies)? Is there one that is a different color? A different shape? All of these differences are easy to pick up on and most of us do it quite well.
Choosing between physical differences of objects isn't necessarily difficult, however, choosing how to interpret abstract concepts is a little tougher. Fortunately, Cookie Monster only puzzled us using simple abstracts such as letters and numbers. i.e. Which one doesn't belong in the set 1, 2, W, and 3? Obviously, 'W' is the answer since it is not apart of the larger set of items known as numbers.
In the title of this post, I put forth a similar puzzle made up of abstract ideas that are a little more controversial than letters and numbers. In some circles, each of these items is postulated to exist. Yet only one them has a large consensus of experts on the evidence to back it up. Which one is it? To find out, I suggest you read this article by Dr. Steve Novella.
No comments:
Post a Comment