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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   29959 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024

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One of the tests asks you to identify three distinctive animals from a drawn picture - a lion, camel, and rhino.

People do get this wrong, sometimes people that you wouldn't guess because they stay sharp in some areas but not others.

lion, camel, and rhino

Do you know why use specifically those animals?

I can totally see someone forgetting the word for rhinoceros under the pressure of the test. The animal is quite unique, and unless you live in Africa, I doubt that you think about rhinos a whole lot.

Or is that the point? Because I'm really afraid of failing a simple test like this.

I don't know why the names of charismatic megafauna are learnt so early, but both my kids knew lion, camel, rhino, elephant, dinosaur etc. well before their second birthdays.

This was reinforced by available media - picture books, toys, Youtube Kids etc.

I agree that its weird, but I would be very surprised if a cognitively normal three-year old in WEIRD culture struggled to name those animals.

both my kids knew lion, camel, rhino, elephant, dinosaur etc. well before their second birthdays

And similarly, people learn the names of women. But when suddenly approached on the street, they struggle to name one! While a cognitive test setting is different from a guy asking you questions while waving a dollar in your face, I would be afraid of forgetting "rhino" under pressure.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LlCEmPF4-V0

I always thought there must be some instinct at work, telling the child that they need to know what kind of big, scary things are around. Same thing that makes young children - especially boys? - obsessed with diggers and other large machinery.

sigh Scott did it

Thanks!

I think they were picked because the silhouettes are known to nearly everybody in the western world (charismatic megafauna!).

charismatic megafauna

Top 10 all time prog rock band name, for sure.

I’m pretty sure that’s the point. Animals everyone knows (even my three year old niece could point them out) but not something you run into every day.

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