Hidden messages
Subliminal messages Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... A hidden message is information that is not immediately noticeable, and that must be discovered or uncovered and interpreted before it can be known. ... A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another object, designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. ... Audio Backmasking Reverse speech Numeric Numerology Theomatics Bible code Cryptography Visual Ambigram Fnord Pareidolia Psychorama Sacred geometry Steganography See also Apophenia Clustering illusion Observer-expectancy effect Pattern recognition Unconscious mind
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The clustering illusion is the natural human tendency to "see patterns where actually none exist." Since, according to a branch of mathematics known as Ramsey Theory, complete mathematical disorder in any physical system is an impossibility, it may be more correct to state, however, that the clustering illusion refers to the natural human tendency to associate some meaning to certain types of patterns which must inevitably appear in any large enough data set. Backmasking (also known incorrectly as backward masking)[1] is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. ... This article is about the theory of reversed messages in normal speech. ... Numerology is any of many systems, traditions or beliefs in a mystical or esoteric relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things. ... Theomatics is a numerological study of the Greek and Hebrew text of the Christian Bible, based upon gematria and isopsephia, that its proponents assert demonstrates the direct intervention of God in the writing of Christian scripture. ... Bible codes, also known as Torah codes, are words, phrases and clusters of words and phrases that some people believe are meaningful and exist intentionally in coded form in the text of the Bible. ... The German Lorenz cipher machine, used in World War II for encryption of very high-level general staff messages Cryptography (or cryptology; derived from Greek κρυπτός kryptós hidden, and the verb γράφω gráfo write or λεγειν legein to speak) is the study of message secrecy. ... An animation of a rotationally symmetric ambigram for the word ambigram A mirror-image ambigram for the word Wiki A rotational ambigram for the word Wikipedia A 3-Dimensional ambigram of the letters A, B and C. A rotational ambigram for the word Vegas Gödel, Escher, Bach cover An... Fnord is the typographic representation of disinformation or irrelevant information intending to misdirect, with the implication of a conspiracy. ... The term pareidolia (pronounced or ), first used in 1994 by Steven Goldstein,[1] describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. ... Psychorama (or The Precon Process) is the act of communicating subliminal information through film—flashing images on the screen so quickly that they cannot be perceived by the conscious mind, but nonetheless leaving an unconscious imprint on the viewer. ... The Parthenons facade showing an interpretation of golden rectangles in its proportions. ... Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message; this is in contrast to cryptography, where the existence of the message itself is not disguised, but the content is obscured. ... Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. ... The observer-expectancy effect, in science, is a cognitive bias that occurs in science when a researcher expects a given result and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or misinterprets data in order to find it. ... Pattern recognition is a field within the area of machine learning. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Ramsey theory, named for Frank P. Ramsey, is a branch of mathematics that studies the conditions under which order must appear. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data, usually presented in tabular form. ...

For instance, most people say that the sequence "OXXXOXXXOXXOOOXOOXXOO" (Gilovich, 1993) is non-random, when, in fact, it has many qualities which would also appear to be desirable characteristics of what one expects to see in a "random" stream, such as having an equal number of each result and the fact that the number of adjacent results with the same outcome is equal for both possible outcomes. In sequences like this, people seem to expect to see a greater number of alternations than one would predict statistically. In fact, in a short number of trials, variability and non-random-looking "streaks" are quite probable. Random redirects here. ... A graph of a normal bell curve showing statistics used in educational assessment and comparing various grading methods. ... Probability is the likelihood that something is the case or will happen. ...

As another example, the answers of the SAT (an important multiple-choice standardized test in the United States) are specifically chosen not to contain any long runs of the same letter, because experience has shown test designers that students believe these runs are unlikely to occur. As a result, a student may feel pressured into choosing a wrong answer just to break a run. For other uses, see SAT (disambiguation). ...

Whether or not patterns exist in a data set can often be decided by means of statistical analysis, or even methods of computational cryptanalysis. The sequence "XXXOXOXOOOXOXOOOXOX" may appear random to most viewers, but if the position of the X's are associated with prime numbers, and the O's with composite numbers, the pattern is clearly non-random. Data compression algorithms are designed, in a sense, to "look for patterns" in data, and to create alternative representations from which it is possible to reconstruct the original data from a compressed form. Large datasets which contain "clusters" of a non-random nature can in general be expected to compress well, given the right encoding algorithm. On the other hand, if there is no real clustering, or pattern, in a particular data set, then one would expect it to compress poorly, if at all. Cryptanalysis (from the Greek kryptós, hidden, and analýein, to loosen or to untie) is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so. ... In mathematics, a prime number, or prime for short, is a natural number greater than one and whose only distinct positive divisors are 1 and itself. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... In computer science, data compression or source coding is the process of encoding information using fewer bits, or information units, thanks to specific encoding schemes. ...

Scientific American's Michael Shermer suggests that the clustering illusion is a byproduct of the human brain's capability for pattern recognition.^[1] Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly) since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ... Pattern recognition is a field within the area of machine learning. ...

The clustering illusion was central to a widely reported study by Thomas Gilovich, Robert Vallone and Amos Tversky. Their conclusion was that the "hot hand" of basketball is indistinguishable from chance (where "hot hand" is the idea that players shoot successfully in "streaks"). Famous coaches including Bobby Knight reportedly scoffed at the study. Thomas D. Gilovich is a professor of psychology at Cornell University who has researched decision making and behavioral economics and has written popular books on said subjects. ... Amos Tversky (March 16, 1937 - June 2, 1996) was a pioneer of cognitive science, a longtime collaborator of Daniel Kahneman, and a key figure in the discovery of systematic human cognitive bias and handling of risk. ... Bob Knight Robert Montgomery (Bobby or Bob) Knight (born October 25, 1940 in Massillon, Ohio, USA), known as The General, is the head mens basketball coach at Texas Tech University. ...

Using this cognitive bias in causal reasoning may result in the Texas sharpshooter fallacy. It may also often be the cause of the gambler's fallacy. (See representativeness heuristic). This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Texas sharpshooter fallacy is a logical fallacy where a cluster of statistically non-significant data is taken from its context, and therefore thought to have a common cause. ... The gamblers fallacy is a logical fallacy which encompasses any of the following misconceptions: A random event is more likely to occur because it has not happened for a period of time; A random event is less likely to occur because it has not happened for a period of... The representativeness heuristic is a heuristic wherein we assume commonality between objects of similar appearance. ...

See also

• Illusion of control
• List of cognitive biases
• Pareidolia
• Pattern recognition
• Apophenia

The illusion of control is the tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes which they clearly cannot. ... Cognitive bias is distortion in the way humans perceive reality (see also cognitive distortion). ... The term pareidolia (pronounced or ), first used in 1994 by Steven Goldstein,[1] describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. ... Pattern recognition is a field within the area of machine learning. ... Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=13&articleID=000EB977-12BE-1264-8F9683414B7FFE9F

• Gilovich, T., Vallone, R. & Tversky, A. (1985). The hot hand in basketball: On the misperception of random sequences. Cognitive Psychology 17, 295-314.
• Gilovich, T. (1993). How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life. New York: The Free Press. ISBN 0-02-911706-2

External links

• Skeptic's Dictionary: The clustering illusion
• Hot Hand website: Statistical analysis of sports streakiness