Molybdenumblue comments on Humans are not automatically strategic - Less Wrong

153 Post author: AnnaSalamon 08 September 2010 07:02AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 09 September 2010 04:17:46AM 5 points [-]

Marcello and I and (damnit, I can't remember who) tried this the other day >concerning what portion of native English speaking American adults know what a >"sphere" is ("a ball" or "orange-shaped" count; "a circle" doesn't), and found that of >the five we sampled, three knew and two didn't.

Did you do this test by asking them to define the word "sphere" verbally? Because I can easily imagine a less-articulate person saying "circle" when they really do understand the difference between a plane figure and a sphere. It might be better to ask them to select which of a given set of objects is a sphere, or even to name something that is shaped like a sphere, although in the latter case they might use the rote knowledge that the earth is a sphere, which could create bias in the opposite direction.