Wolfychan ([info]wolfychan) wrote,
@ 2009-01-07 19:06:00
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One, two, three, ah ha ha.
How many objects can you visually count? That is, how many objects can you look at and instantly know the number of, without having to count or break them into groups? For me it's five. So I see this as "five":



But when I look at this, it initially just reads as "a bunch." I can only make sense of it if I think "two threes."



Unless the objects are arranged tidily, multi-grouping only works well up to about ten for me; after "two fives" I'm down to "one, two, three..." which works on pretty much any reasonable number of objects.



It's surprisingly primitive how little we can really count--and kinda inspiring how much we understand about math anyway.

I understand this varies from person to person, so I'm curious:

Poll #1327319 Counting
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

How many objects can you visually count?

View Answers

3
0 (0.0%)

4
1 (12.5%)

5
5 (62.5%)

6
0 (0.0%)

7
0 (0.0%)

8
1 (12.5%)

More than 8
0 (0.0%)

As many as I can see distinctly
1 (12.5%)



EDIT: Holy crap, I didn't even realize when I posted this that my "five" and "two fives" limits correspond rather obviously to fingers. I honestly didn't even think that. My little monkey-mind is blown.

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[info]perdita_dream
2009-01-08 08:19 am UTC (link)
I've thought about this before. I have decided that my years of playing with legos as a child has led to my being able to see up to about 8 instantly, since the average longest lego I'd use was 8 by 1 knobs long. A single file line much longer than that becomes a bit confusing.

Interesting.

I kind of doubt anyone's claim that they can instantly count an unlimited number of distinct dots, even arranged neatly, as in:

Photobucket

If someone can honestly look at even one of those groupings and instantly know how many dots there are, that is... implausible, quite frankly.

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[info]wolfychan
2009-01-08 04:18 pm UTC (link)
I always had to see 8-thingy Legos as "4 and 4," even if they were single file.

And that's not "neat." Neat is in columns or groups of a countable number--i.e., five groups of five things, or even five groups of five groups of five things.

I believe that some people can, particularly certain autistic people. It's a rare ability but it does exist. The fact that you and I look at that thing and see "I dunno, a bunch" doesn't mean that everyone perceives it the same way.

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