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Questions tagged [perception]

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17 votes
2 answers
2k views

Do women distinguish more colours than men?

In the first section (from the start up to about 55s into the video) of this amusing YouTube video about the differences between men and women, the following claim is made: Why do women distinguish ...
matt_black's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
504 views

Is the experience of unified perception produced by the (physical) brain?

From 1:37 to 3:22 in this video, the claim is made that we can clearly see that brain chemistry cannot give rise to unified subjective experience and cannot explain how our experiences emerge. The ...
Sam Estep's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
4k views

Did Howard Stephen Berg comprehend 80 pages per minute?

On this video, Howard Stephen Berg appears as a guest speaker, where the host claims that he could read 80 pages per minute. That just seems impossible. I understand that speed reading is possible ...
J.Todd's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
4k views

Did Native American trackers lose their tracking abilities when their hair was shaved?

Disclove.tv writes in "THE TRUTH ABOUT LONG HAIR" When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required ...
Christian's user avatar
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109 votes
8 answers
31k views

Could people perceive the color blue in ancient times?

This article claims that no ancient language anywhere in the world had the word for "blue", that for instance Homer described the sea as "wine-dark", and that the color blue has only appeared more ...
o0'.'s user avatar
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8 votes
0 answers
443 views

Are blind listening tests flawed?

Blind listening tests are strongly critiqued by Robert Harley in this editorial, published in The Absolute Sound. Harley seems to think the tests prove nothing. Every few years, the results of some ...
StackExchange saddens dancek's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
855 views

Does Indonesian Kopi Luwak coffee have a distinctive taste?

The Indonesian Kopi luwak AKA civet coffee is the world's most expensive coffee at $160 per pound. Are there any testimonials, considering its premium price, that its taste even distinguishable ...
KMoraz's user avatar
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30 votes
1 answer
6k views

Was it common to perform surgeries on babies without anesthesia because doctors felt they weren't "conscious enough to feel pain"?

The claim was made on parenting.se that "not so long ago, babies were operated on without anaesthetic because they weren't considered 'conscious' enough to feel pain".* A Google search revealed ...
Beofett's user avatar
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50 votes
2 answers
10k views

Is the sound from records (vinyl) superior to digital formats (CDs, music files, etc.)?

Quasi-related Are there any perceptible differences between the sound quality of 192 versus 320 kbps MP3 files? Do expensive, “premium” speaker cables actually make a difference? I've heard this ...
Hendy's user avatar
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19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Are first impressions unchangeable?

In one of my college psychology classes, a few years ago, my teacher claimed that first impressions drastically shaped our perceptions. To make his point, he said the following: At the beginning of ...
Borror0's user avatar
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96 votes
3 answers
20k views

Are there any perceptible differences between the sound quality of 192 versus 320 kbps MP3 files?

I have friends that are very picky when it comes to MP3 bitrate, and will always look for the 320 kbps version of a file. However, I have never noticed any differences, they sound the same to me. I ...
Mihai Rotaru's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
2k views

Does the container that soda is in affect the flavour?

When I was a kid, a friend and I had a list of favourite containers for soda (specifically Coca Cola). We said that it tasted the best when coming out of a glass bottle and the worst from a plastic ...
DeVil's user avatar
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109 votes
2 answers
29k views

Do expensive, "premium" speaker cables make a difference?

I was tempted to go drop $8500 on these awesome speaker cables so I could be like Whiplash (see customer pictures), but I'm curious, if I use them for my audio system, will they actually make a ...
Nick T's user avatar
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39 votes
1 answer
8k views

Can people read much faster than 400 words per minute?

While investigating the topic of speed reading for a school project, I came across this Slate article. The general idea (which I encountered in most articles I read which discussed this topic) would ...
Mihai Rotaru's user avatar
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31 votes
4 answers
2k views

What is the commonly accepted mechanism that causes people to experience pareidolia?

I often see cases of pareidolia reported in the news, on blogs, and even here. I think remember reading in Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan that this had an evolutionary origin (i.e. if you see a ...
Larian LeQuella's user avatar
26 votes
1 answer
17k views

Did sailors mistake sea cows for mermaids?

I've heard theories that mermaid sightings were the result of sex-starved sailors mistaking manatees, dugongs or Steller's sea cows for beautiful women. History.com claims Columbus did this, "How I ...
Golden Cuy's user avatar
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