On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 2:15 PM, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote: > Here’s a much more challenging equation to fix: > > III = III + III > > In this case, only 43 percent of normal subjects were able to solve the > problem. Most stared at the Roman numerals for a few minutes and then > surrendered. The patients who couldn’t pay attention, however, had an 82 > percent success rate. What accounts for this bizarre result? Why does > brain damage dramatically improve performance on a hard creative task? > The explanation is rooted in the unexpected nature of the solution, > which involves moving the vertical matchstick in the plus sign, > transforming it into an equal sign. (The equation is now a simple > tautology: III = III = III.) The reason this puzzle is so difficult, at > least for people without brain damage, has to do with the standard > constraints of math problems. Because we’re not used to thinking about > the operator, most people quickly fix their attention on the roman > numerals. But that’s a dead end. The patients with a severe cognitive > deficit, in contrast, can’t restrict their search. They are forced by > their brain injury to consider a much wider range of possible answers. > And this is why they’re nearly twice as likely to have a breakthrough.
Great! I just had a hot chocolate + rum drink and instantly solved the above equation by moving one stick over the "equal to" operator, making it "not equal to" :P So this research must be true after all. Thanks for sharing, Uday. Good read. -- A
