A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving

[Olm the Water King]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...m-solving.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

A Quick Puzzle to Test Your Problem Solving

...

I got 6 nos before answering right hehehe.

 

[á´…eparted]

That was anticlimatic, and really easy. Granted I have an advantage as my career path trains you to think this way quite rigorously. I tested 10 sequences. The first was to see if it was any kind of x^y sequence. Eventually I tried a random set, then tried repeating numbers, then numbers that decrease. Eventually the only option was that it is as long as the numbers rise each time.

 

[Olm the Water King]

That was anticlimatic, and really easy. Granted I have an advantage as my career path trains you to think this way quite rigorously. I tested 10 sequences. The first was to see if it was any kind of x^y sequence. Eventually I tried a random set, then tried repeating numbers, then numbers that decrease. Eventually the only option was that it is as long as the numbers rise each time.

Cool. But apparently, 77% don't even get one 'no' and only 9% get 3 or more nos, hehe.

 

[Hawthorne]

Unfortunately, I recently read about this in The Black Swan and was spoiled. Still very neato though.

 

[á´…eparted]

Cool. But apparently, 77% don't even get one 'no' and only 9% get 3 or more nos, hehe.

Which is completely shocking to me. I knew before I started I would need several no's to confirm. This is just basic logic, and formal logic is not something I am strong with. In hindsight I should have tried negative numbers, but I assumed the app thingy wanted positive whole numbers.

This is what I did

 

[Ghost]

Hmm...

Remarkably, 77 percent of people who have played this game so far have guessed the answer without first hearing a single no. A mere 9 percent heard at least three nos — even though there is no penalty or cost for being told no, save the small disappointment that every human being feels when hearing “no.”

So 77% answered, correctly or incorrectly, without hearing no? Like, they only got yeses and decided they were on the right track? That is so weird to me. I guessed 9 times and got 2 nos before choosing an answer. Getting yeses made me feel like something was missing. Finding out what disobeyed the rule helped me figure out what was going on.

 

[Forever]

I got 2 yes's and guessed it.

#the77%

 

[Null]

At least my pre-employment testing was good for something.

 

[erm]

What you hope people use this for: "Wow what an interesting insight regarding a premise of our cognitive functioning, which might well reflect onto most of my own and other's thinking even outside of this very formal scenario".

What people actually use this for: "Wow I'm so much smarter than 77% of the population" (<-- actually just has previous experience with confirmation bias in this specific formal setting)