Mind Games 9

In Mind Games 9, a lone cowboy rides into town, and we get on first-name terms with some friendly abstract shapes.

26. Cowboy logic

A cowboy rides into town on Friday, and four days later, he rides out of town on Friday. How is this possible? Thanks to reader Cobus Smit for this fun puzzle.

See the answer.

27. Kiki and Bouba

Look at these two shapes. Which one would you call “Kiki” and which one would you call “Bouba”? It’s not a hard question! But the answer has some interesting implications.

See the answer.

- By Olivia Rose-Innes and Senora Sine Thirteen, Health24, August 2011

References:

Köhler, W. (1929) Gestalt Psychology.

Ramachandran, V.S. & Hubbard, E.M. (2001). Synaesthesia: A window into perception, thought and language. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8(12), 3 - 34.

Maurer, D.; T. Pathman & C. J. Mondloch (2006), "The shape of boubas: Sound-shape correspondences in toddlers and adults", Developmental Science 9(3): 316-322

Ramachandran, V.S. & L.M. Oberman. Evidence for Deficits in Mirror Neuron Function, Multisensory Integration, and Sound-form Symbolism in Autism Spectrum Disorders

The picture of Booba and Kiki was originally drawn by Andrew Dunn, October 2004.This version posted by Wikipedia user Qef, June 2008. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

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