The Salzman Test: a psychological puzzle
Posted by turnermagic on August 28, 2008
When I was in Louisville this summer, I spent a bit of time talking with Dr. Kenneth Salzman, a clinical psychologist who has a magical background as well. He showed me an interesting test and I asked his permission to share it with you.
Consider the following:
The Salzman Test
Did you figure out which one doesn’t belong? Email me if you think you have it — but explain your answer!
I’ll post later with the solution as well as a thought or two about how it applies to some other questions.
Shane said
I think the middle object is the unique one. And what’s unique about it is that it is the only object that doesn’t have any singularly uniqe properties.
The object on the far left has one unique property, the “II”.
The 2nd from left has one unique property – the lack of a double-lined outline.
The object on the far right as one unique property – the white color.
The 2nd from the right has one unique property – the oval shape.
But there’s not a single property about the object in the middle that isn’t shared by another object.
Gwen Hardin said
I was going to say that the second object was the one that didn’t belong; it does not have the double outline like the rest of the objects. However, after reading Shane’s post above, I’m going to have to agree with Shane.
I realized that I was too hasty in my decision-making. I didn’t even absorb the fact that the 5th object was white instead of green; I saw it, it just didn’t register. I did notice that the 4th object was oval instead of diamond-shaped and the 1st object had a “II” in it as opposed to a “I”.
I’ll be interested to see what the answer is. And if there’s an explanation as to why my thoughts processed the way they did!
Rub said
I agree with Shane
Scott Lofland said
I also agree with Shane; the answer being that in “belonging” in every group, makes it singularly unique. The others, as he identified, have some exclusionary value to them.
Shank said
I would say the fourth one does not belong – the others are made completely out of straight lines – the fourth one has a oval shape.
Bubli Sagar said
I think all others are in diamond shape, while only the 4th piece is unique…a different shape..