Question:
You paid $1.10 for a plate and spoon together.
The plate is $1.00 more than the spoon.
How much is the spoon?
Did you get the answer?
The question can be transformed like this:
① You paid $1.10 for a plate and spoon together → Plate + Spoon = $1.10
② The plate is $1.00 more than the spoon → Plate = Spoon + $1.00
Replace “Spoon” with X and “Plate” with Y
① Plate + Spoon = $1.10 → Y + X = 1.10 → X = 1.10 – Y
② Plate = Spoon + $1.00 → Y = X + 1.00
X = 1.10 – (X + 1.00)
X + X = 1.10 – 1.00
2X = 0.10
X = 0.05
The answer is $0.05, not $0.10.
However, many people think the answer is $0.10.
How about this?
Aoccdrnig to research at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it doesn’t mattar in waht order the lettiers in a word are, the olny impoetant tihng is taht the frist and last litter be at the rghit place. The rest can be a totial mess and you can sitll read it withiout a porbelm. Tihs is becuaese the human mnid deos not read ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.
There are 24 words with misspelling and one that is spelled correctly but used wrongly. How many did you recognize?
Often our impression and perception are different from the actual information (the fact/truth). What we recognize is not necessarily what it really is. We interpret what it is to what we think.
For the most time our misunderstanding surfaces among the interaction with others. That’s how we find a mistake sooner or later and adjust accordingly.
But sometimes a wrong interpretation takes over the truth.
Our cognitive ability comes from both the inborn traits and the learned behavior pattern.
We all have unique nature. When it comes to listening, one extreme is the one who listens to anyone without any objection. Sometimes they are called flexible, corporative, passive, or dependent. The other end won’t listen to anyone at all. They are called strong-willed, independent, inflexible or stubborn. We are all located somewhere in between. And we show different flexibility depending on the time and/or subject.
The environment such as your family and culture greatly influences the interpreter’s standard, too. So does the individual life experiences.
Some people’s brain works in a quite unique way by nature and/or temporarily. When it is so unique that starts causing the trouble to carry on the social life, it is called some sort of disorder.
Say someone claims his neighbor is stalking him. After some investigation, there is no such a thing going on. Well, at least everyone else thinks so. Is he hallucinating or the stalker is so claver everyone else is fooled? I don’t know, but I would not believe him so easily without objective clues.
But it doesn’t matter for him if there are objective clues or not. For him, what he percepts is the truth. He may stop claiming because otherwise people think he is crazy, but it doesn’t mean he stops believing what he percepts ‘with his own eyes and ears’. Without him accepting the possibility that his brain may be causing some trick, he will never be able to listen to the others.
We all have this struggle to accept the ‘so-called truth’ against our own perception more or less. Our perception is not necessarily the same as the fact/truth. With whatever reason, we percept a thing in a subjective way, and sometimes it obviously doesn’t match with the others.
This is a struggle, but also a good opportunity to examine yourself. Between the flexibility and inflexibility, dependence and strong will, you go back and forth. It is not easy but gives you the opportunity to look deeper inside of you what is the truth for you.