Brain teaser to test your pattern recognition: Fill the void

By Caroline Latham | September 6, 2019

Here’s a quick brain teas­er pro­vid­ed by puz­zle mas­ter Wes Car­roll. Which num­ber should be placed in the emp­ty tri­an­gle, and why? This brain teas­er helps you work out your exec­u­tive functions–supported by your frontal lobes– such as pat­tern recog­ni­tion, hypoth­e­sis test­ing, and log­ic. Let us know below how you do and whether you have alter­na­tive answers…

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Brain teaser to challenge your frontal lobes

By Caroline Latham | January 19, 2017

Here is a fun brain teas­er from puz­zle mas­ter Wes Car­roll. Tip­ping the Scales Ques­tion: The top two scales in the image at the right are in per­fect bal­ance. How many dia­monds will be need­ed to bal­ance the bot­tom set? This puz­zle helps you work out your exec­u­tive func­tions –sup­port­ed in the frontal lobes— by using your…

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On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not

By Dr. Ginger Campbell | August 18, 2008 |

Where does our “Feel­ing of Know­ing” come from? Have you ever felt cer­tain that you knew an answer even though you could­n’t think of it right off? Where does that “feel­ing of know­ing” come from? The answer to this ques­tion is the focus of neu­rol­o­gist Robert Bur­ton’s new book On Being Cer­tain: Believ­ing You Are…

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Mind Teaser: Consider Linda

By Alvaro Fernandez | June 30, 2008 |

(I hope you enjoy this very reveal­ing mind teas­er!) Please con­sid­er Lin­da, a 31-year-old woman, sin­gle and bright. When she was a stu­dent, both in high school and col­lege, she was deeply con­cerned with dis­crim­i­na­tion and social jus­tice, and also par­tic­i­pat­ed in anti-nuclear protests. Which is more prob­a­ble about Lin­da’s occu­pa­tion today? (a) Lin­da is…

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