Editing 1213: Combination Vision Test
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | {{w|Synesthesia}} is a condition in which perception in one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Common examples are experiencing colors when seeing numbers or words ({{w|Grapheme-color synesthesia}}), hearing tones or music while reading words or text, seeing sequences of numbers or month names in a distinct and fixed shape ({{w|Number form}}), etc. | + | {{w|Synesthesia}} is a condition in which perception in one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Common examples are experiencing colors when seeing numbers or words ({{w|Grapheme-color synesthesia}}), hearing tones or music while reading words or text, seeing sequences of numbers or month names in a distinct and fixed shape ({{w|Number form}}), etc. Colour-blindness is one of a number of conditions in which a person cannot distinguish certain pairs of colours that other people without colour-blindness might find easy to distinguish. There are many different forms of colour-blindness; the most common is an inability to separate the colours red and green. |
− | + | There are two numbers embedded in the big circle of numbers, in a similar way to a common {{w|color perception test}}. But this test can not work for colors because it is just a black-and-white picture. Nobody can see it. However, the joke lies in the fact that those with one common form of synesthesia see colours associated with numbers. Randall implies that a synesthete will see colours connected to each number, and thus a colour perception test will work after all - thus distinguishing synesthetes with colour-blindness from those with normal colour perception. | |
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− | There are two numbers embedded in the big circle of numbers, in a similar way to a common {{w|color perception test}}. But this test can not work for colors because it is just a black-and-white picture. Nobody can see it. However, the joke lies in the fact that those with one common form of synesthesia see | ||
The comic playfully suggests that if you have synesthesia as well as {{w|colorblindness}}, then some of the colors might appear identical and so one number would not be visible, only leaving the other number. | The comic playfully suggests that if you have synesthesia as well as {{w|colorblindness}}, then some of the colors might appear identical and so one number would not be visible, only leaving the other number. | ||
− | The | + | The Title text brings in two more conditions: {{w|diplopia}}, or double vision, and {{w|myopia}}, or near-sightedness. Those who are near-sighted sometimes see distant objects more clearly while squinting. Then they would be able to see the one large number still visible from the synesthesia/colorblindness combination, but because of double vision they see a second copy of it, hence two numbers that are the same. |
− | If we | + | If we colour the numbers in the circle in a consistent way (and leave the 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9s black) we can reveal the large numbers: |
[[File:BLIQR6w.png|center]] | [[File:BLIQR6w.png|center]] | ||
− | The numbers are four and two, forming the number {{w|42 (number)|42}}, which is the famous "{{w|Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything}}", according to the book {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}. The number 4 is formed by digits 2, 3, 5 and 7 | + | The numbers are four and two, forming the number {{w|42 (number)|42}}, which is the famous "{{w|Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything}}", according to the book {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}. The number 4 is formed by digits 2, 3, 5 and 7 while the number 2 is formed by digits 3, 5, 7 and 9. |
− | For Randall's test to work (i.e. for either the large 4 or the large 2 in '42' to get lost in the noise to those with a given | + | For Randall's test to work (i.e. for either the large 4 or the large 2 in '42' to get lost in the noise to those with a given colour-blindness), either the little number 2 or the little number 9 would have to be lost in the background noise. So, for example, if the background appeared in shades of red and the little number 2 was a shade of green, then the large number 4 would be less visible to those with red-green colour-blindness than to others. |
While it makes for a good joke, there are three reasons this kind of test wouldn't work in real life. | While it makes for a good joke, there are three reasons this kind of test wouldn't work in real life. | ||
− | The first is that there is no one set of | + | The first is that there is no one set of colour-number associations seen by all synesthetes. So while some synesthete might see '2' as green and '0' as red (so a red-green colour-blind person would lose anything made up of '2's against a background of '0's), others might see '2' as yellow and '0' as blue, or any other association imaginable. |
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− | The | + | The second reason it wouldn't work is that synesthetes do not (always) automatically see a 1:1 overlay of colour on top of a number - they still need to read the number legibly. Randall's circle is very chaotic, so one wouldn't intuitively identify each single number. For a synesthete the color is produced ''after'' the number is recognized by the brain and lost when the focus shifts to the next number. However, some synesthetes may find if they pay attention to the numbers one by one they can make something out. |
− | The | + | The third reason the test would not work is that colour-blindness is an inability to distinguish colours of light hitting the retina, it's nonsensical to imagine a synesthete would perceive two separate colours that they cannot normally separate anyway. |
− | The | + | The next image shows all of the numbers, including 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9, coloured in, in such a way as to ensure the number 42 is clearly visible to those with no particular blue-yellow colour-blindness: |
[[File:combination vision test fullcolor.png|center]] | [[File:combination vision test fullcolor.png|center]] | ||
− | Keep in mind, as noted above, that synesthetes do not all see the same | + | Keep in mind, as noted above, that synesthetes do not all see the same colour-number associations. They also do not necessarily see every number in a different colour, as depicted here, and may even see some numbers as purely black. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== |