A Weird Test You Can Try

Jack Dikian

December 2011

This is really weird – try it for yourself…

Start:

How much is: 60 + 17

3 + 56

89 + 2

12 + 53

75 + 26

25 + 52

63 + 32

I know! Calculations are hard work, but it's nearly over. . .

Come on, one more! ...

123 + 5

QUICK! THINK ABOUT A COLOR AND A TOOL!

Scroll further to the bottom...

A bit more...

You just thought about a red hammer , didn't you?

This is really weird…this is the 98% Red- Hammer test

Doing the arithmetic is a distraction and helps you get into the test mood.

It turns out that the majority of people when asked to choose a color out of the blue, will say "red". It's the same when people are asked to name a tool out of the blue. Most, or a large percentage, will say "hammer."

By putting the two together you get a large proportion of people thinking "red hammer". The test is designed to portray a certain “weirdness” inferring that the test "knows" you were going to say "red hammer".

The purpose of having you do the additions as you scroll down the page is to put you into concentration on something else, so that your answers to the questions actually do come from out of the blue.

Cross-Sensory Deficits - Synesthesia

Jack Dikian

December 2010

We tend to use cross-sensory metaphors in our everyday language quite frequently. For example, she’s a prickly person, or he’s wearing a loud shirt. But what we may not be aware of is that some people, some estimate up to 5% of the population may suffer from neurological (clinical) synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.

In one of the most common forms of synesthesia, individuals will perceive letters of the alphabet and numbers with a shaded or tinged color. While different individuals usually do not report the same colors for all letters and numbers, studies with large numbers of synesthetes find some commonalities across letters such as the letter” A” is likely to be colored red.

Another example of synesthesia is where individuals report that some sounds trigger colour, shape and motion. For example, a barking dog may trigger color and simple shapes that arise, move around, and then fade.