NancyLebovitz comments on Open Thread August 31 - September 6 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Elo 30 August 2015 09:26PM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 31 August 2015 05:50:44PM 4 points [-]

Thanks for mentioning that I'd already brought up the paper. I've got three quotes here.

My last name is Lebovitz.

I think of the way people tend to get it wrong as a rationality warning. I know about those errors because I have an interest in my name, but the commonness of the errors suggests that people get a tremendous amount wrong. How much of it matters? How could we even start to find out?

Comment author: PhilGoetz 01 September 2015 04:18:17AM *  1 point [-]

Sorry for misspelling your name. I don't think memory errors are rationality errors.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 02 September 2015 07:03:23PM 0 points [-]

Memory errors have a bearing on rationality because you need accurate data to think about, and one of the primary causes of not remembering something is not having noticed it.

I can say my name twice, spell it, and show people a business card, and still have them get it wrong.

If you want more about how little people perceive, I recommend Sleight of Mind, a book about neurology and stage magic.

Comment author: OrphanWilde 01 September 2015 02:32:56PM 0 points [-]

Judging by the particular way you mis-spelled the name, I'd guess your memory is more auditory in nature?

Comment author: Lumifer 01 September 2015 05:16:36PM 2 points [-]

It's not a memory error, it's a hasty pattern-match error.

Comment author: btrettel 02 September 2015 09:20:12PM 1 point [-]

Excellent point. These errors are fairly common. When I use this username, I somewhat frequently see people write it as brettel. I guess that means that they interpret it as brett-el, when in reality it's b-trettel. I can understand this.

Comment author: Romashka 04 September 2015 06:57:41PM 2 points [-]

Eh, you're lucky. I always read 'malcolmocean' as 'macromole - wait'.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 06 September 2015 03:11:30PM 0 points [-]

I think it's a strong-prior error. There are many different spellings, one or two letters apart, and I pick the one I've seen most often.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 02 September 2015 07:04:18PM 0 points [-]

I agree that it's a pattern-match error, but I think I'd classify that as a type of memory error.

Comment author: Lumifer 02 September 2015 07:42:57PM 3 points [-]

I think of memory errors as retrieving something other than what was stored. In this case I doubt people "stored" your name correctly -- most likely they interpreted it wrong to start with. It's a perception error, then.