May 6, 2014

Some Definitions (part 2)

Every now and again I run across some concepts of which I do not want to forget. They may be simple or elaborate. At any rate, I include them so that I have some reference; given the state of my memory I think this may be a good thing!

The Law of Small Numbers: People tend to generalize from small amounts of data. Nielsen is guilty of this, and so that is why a lot of good television shows are canceled.

The Illusion of Validity: Consistent evidence persistently leads to confident predictions, even after the predictive value of the evidence has been discredited. A good example of this is picking lottery numbers based upon numbers that appear to come up often.

The Law of Closure: Objects which are grouped together are seen as a whole; gaps tend to be ignored, the mind filling in the missing information. Here is a great video to illustrate. Just watch it first, don't read anything about it, or it will ruin the point.

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