#12. Challenge your brain with this visual logic brain teaser
In which direction is the bus pictured below traveling?
Do you know the answer?
The only possible answers are “left” or “right.”
Still don’t know?
Keep reading for the answer and explanation…
When pre-school children in the US are shown this brain teaser, they often answer “left.”
Why? “Because you can’t see the door.”
(This works in countries where you drive on the right side of the road, like the US and continental Europe; it would be the reverse in countries where you drive on the left side, such as the UK)
Feel pretty dumb now, don’t you? I did too!
This teaser illustrates a good concept about how our memory works (and also our cognitive flexibility). Imagine if our memories were absolutely perfect. On the one hand, you might have been able to answer this puzzle correctly, since you could compare this image to all the school bus images you have in your mind, and only the ones going left would match.
On the other hand, imagine truly remembering every single detail of every single day of your life. It would be insurmountable to filter through all that data retrieve useful information…you probably wouldn’t have been able to answer the question in hours or even days, trying to retrieve and process every single bus-related memory.
Think about that next time you complain about your memory…
Other brain teasers for kids and adults in SharpBrains’ top 25 series:
PS: Enjoy these 50 brain teasers and games to test your cognitive ability. Free, and fun for children and adults of any age!
I would like to comment on the answer to the puzzle above. I think the answer “left” is not generaly true specialy in countries using right hand drive vehicles. Meaning in those contries the vehicle above is going “right” not “left”.
True enough Ryanel! The same logic in determining the direction applies though. Good point!
lol
The bus only has a chassis, some windows and wheels, with nothing to keep anything together, no bumper, no suspension, no detail, and we’re supposed to assume there’s a door? It doesn’t look like a real bus, but it’s supposed to have a door like one? Also, what if it’s traveling in reverse? There is no right answer.
I agree with Pat. With a simplistic picture like that, the fact that there’s no door shouldn’t really be expected to ring a bell. There’s no windshield either. There’s no headlights.
Also, I find the statement about preschoolers to be a bit suspect. It sounds like the type of statement that’s thrown into those annoying forwarded e‑mails but is really just arbitrarily added. So is it based on a study, or hearsay?
True to form, the Americans have forgotten that the internet is international. Well done you. Talk about brain training… more like brain washing.
I agree with the criticisms above; the absence of a door is hardly significant, and the anecdote about “preschoolers” being able to correctly answer it seems dubious at best (especially given the lack of any identifying details). Also, my criticism has nothing to do with the fact that I didn’t think of the door.
Why aren’t we empirical about this…does something prevent us from testing this with pre-schoolers and see what they come up with? I have done it with a few, and that’s a common observation.
Also, given that many of the people working in SharpBrains-myself included- were born out of the US, I find some of the comments here pretty entertaining. Very stimulating to think what may explain them.
The absence of the door is wholely significant. The fact that the picture is so simplistic is exactly how I was able to guess the answer. Looking at it I thought, okay, there isn’t enough in the picture to tell the direction so what’s missing? A door. Must be on the other side. Which means, in my country, the bus is pointing to the left.
in my country they have doors on both sides
The pre-schoolers I tried it on didn’t know their left from right, so I find that statement to be quite suspect.
Even if one or two out of a group did know, I doubt most would.
Alan.
and where is the door for the driver?
Pakotin: great question :-) now, remember than most of us have pretty selective attention so we focus on our door…most likely only drivers would think of the driver’s door as the first reaction to try to solve this.
Everyone else: please remember that the benefits of puzzles like this is to get neurons firing by trying a variety of approaches. Getting the “right” answer is secondary. And, yes, we could discuss what the right answer is, which depends by country etc…
The riddle works only assuming:
1. You are in a country where people drive on the right side of the road.
2. Buses have no reverse.
anyway, even if we are looking at it from the left side, (the door being on the right side), there is no rule that says it’s not going on reverse gear…
Am I outside the bus, or inside ?
Hello Ricardo, I would guess you are outside, because that bus doen’t seem to have Internet connection…
Left
Yea, i dont feel dumb for not getting this. Its a stylised drawing. If you had shown me that picture and asked me what is this? I wouldve answered “some sort of vehicle”. I definitely wouldnt have said “thats a bus”, you cant tell thats what it is. So IMO not really a brain teaser, more of a trick.
What about the Reflective tape stiping around the escape windows ont he sides of the bus?How would Emergency personell find the correct area to extract the passengers, should the bus tip over in a horriffic traffic accident!!! The CHILDREN.… Does no one think of the CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hola,
es verdad, la puerta est del otro lado, por lo tanto parecera ir hacia la izquierda. Pero… y si va marcha atr¡s? Entonces sera derecha.
Left because the door is on the other side!!!
The drawing is a fixed, flat object and not moving. So I have performed my brain fitness today. LOL sh
What if the door on the other side is on the right end and not the left end. Then it’s going right, right? We assume there IS a door in the first place because we have not seen a bus that has no door. Then we must also assume it has all of the other marking such as windshield, etc. as well. What end they are on is decided by which end the door is on.
Oh, good grief. Leave it to adults to make this complicated. The puzzle SAYS it’s a bus, so it’s a bus. And the driver of pretty much all buses gets on the bus through the same door everyone else does.