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Did you try to disconfirm<\/strong> your hypothesis? For example, if you thought the pattern was that each number is 2x the previous number, did you try something like 4, 8, 9 or did you only try to confirm<\/strong> by looking for matching patterns?<\/p>\n\n

In fact, the rule was very simple: x < y < z. In other words, 2647, 2657, 9973 follows the rule, as does -29, 0, 3.14159. The sequence 1, 2, 1, does not follow the rule. Nor does 4, 2, 1.<\/p>\n\n

In one version of this game run by the New York Times<\/em>, 77% of participants guessed the answer without entering a single \"false\" sequence. In other words, they were only trying to confirm, not to disconfirm.<\/p>\n\n

This is the problem with so much that is written or belived about English grammar: the people who are making up the \"rules\" jump to conclusions without checking to see if there might be counter examples. This is called confirmation bias<\/a>. As a language teacher you should work to avoid it. The best way to to this is to check for counter examples<\/strong>.<\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","subContentId":"d56ecdf7-d22a-4888-a6a2-efe0edc4568e","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"}},"title":"Why this is hard"}],"hTag":"h2"}