5 ms·
I am very skeptical that ~50% of all men in the US know what thermistor means. The Methods section is not clear about whether people who "indicated" they knew a
by thedailymail 5y ago
I am very skeptical that ~50% of all men in the US know what thermistor means. The Methods section is not clear about whether people who "indicated" they knew a word actually did know what the word meant.
My skepticism applies equally to several of the words chosen as indices of rare comprehension: "The percentages of people indicating they knew the word ranged from 2% (for stotinka, adyta, kahikatea, gomuti, arseniuret, alsike, . . .)"
I strongly doubt that 1 in 50 randomly selected people could define "kahikatea" or "arseniuret."
- yaacov 5y agoYou’re misunderstanding the paper. This is not the number of people who can correctly define the word, it’s the number of people who can correctly recognize that it is actually a word.
- mankyd 5y agoThey don't. You can click through and take the test. It doesn't ask you if you know what any of the words mean. It simply presents you with words, some esoteric, some common, and some _imaginary_. You are simply asked to sort the real words from the fictional.
- kccqzy 5y agoIn case anyone wants to take the test: http://vocabulary.ugent.be/wordtest/start http://vocabulary.ugent.be/wordtest/start