Day 29 – Three Past Ten?

We bought this clock a number of years ago, it caught Kirk’s eye and we had a good laugh over it. It was inexpensive so it came home and has been a source of fun ever since.

The human brain astounds me with its capacity to interpret. When we first bought this clock both of us would mix up the time because it is natural to read the numbers and interpret them literally. As in, it’s three past ten. But that’s the trick with this particular clock. Many clocks have no numbers at all, and we just interpret the time based on the position. But this clock provides too much information and the brain responds to the numbers before it translates the positions. So, with a little exposure and “brain training” we now don’t even see the numbers, unless very tired I suppose.

I’ve seen paragraphs where the words were missing letters, but the brain can still translate it easily because it recognizes the patterns in the remaining letters.

Have you ever tried this one? Take a few different coloured pens or pencils and write the name of a colour in another coloured pen. In other words use the red pen to write the word blue, and so on. Now, go back and try to recite the colours…not what’s written, but the actual colours themselves, in other words, try to quickly read your list where you must vocalize “blue” for the word red written in blue….. sounds easy, but the brain puts more importance on the word than it does on the colour, so it’s a struggle for most people.

Anyway, that’s the thought and the photo for Day 29.