What number is halfway between 1 and 9?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 8th Oct 2012 21:54 UTC
In the News "Ask adults from the industrialized world what number is halfway between 1 and 9, and most will say 5. But pose the same question to small children, or people living in some traditional societies, and they're likely to answer 3. Cognitive scientists theorize that that's because it's actually more natural for humans to think logarithmically than linearly." Fascinating. The human brain is such a magical machine.
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theosib
Member since:
2006-03-02

I never thought it had anything to do with testing intelligence. What I'm saying is that there's room for different interpretations of the question. So there are two places that a subject can deviate from expected responses. One is that they understand the question and have a different concept of "in between." The other is that they didn't interpret the question in the way that the researchers assume they should.

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kwan_e Member since:
2007-02-18

I never thought it had anything to do with testing intelligence. What I'm saying is that there's room for different interpretations of the question. So there are two places that a subject can deviate from expected responses. One is that they understand the question and have a different concept of "in between." The other is that they didn't interpret the question in the way that the researchers assume they should.


The point of the research IS about how people, at different ages, have different interpretations of the question.

Reply Parent Score: 3