When I was most recently used as a lab rat to earn some extra money in an fMRI experiment, there was one portion of the experiment in which a combo of letters and numbers would appear in one of the 4 corners of the screen. Like 4F for instance. If it appeared on the top of the screen (left or right) I needed to press a button telling whether the letter portion of that combo was a consonant or a vowel. If it appeared at the bottom of the screen, I needed to press a button telling whether the number portion of that combo was even or odd. The tricky part for me was that there were only 2 answer keys. I felt the combination of even/odd and vowel/consonant on a single key did not make sense, which made the task rather difficult for me. However, I'm finding that I have a unique opinion as to which pairing makes more sense. Therefore, I have decided to take a poll. Please vote and let me know whether vowels are more even or odd in your mind (and thus whether consonants are more odd or even). Also please vote even if I've already gotten your opinion in person. You should be able to view the results as we go, and we'll see if my opinion is all that unique after all. You might even choose to comment as to why you feel one pairing makes more sense than the other. I really wonder a little bit if my family will choose the same way I have and everyone else will choose differently...
okay here goes:
EDIT: I feel the need to re-explain the situation. In my case, the vowels *were* on the same key as either even or odd. The #3 choice is really only if you absolutely can't fathom there being any equating of vowels and an even or odd. But I think for most people there is some sort of natural grouping between the two dissimilar forms. This isn't an IQ test, you don't need to think that hard. gut reaction,
Are Vowels Even or Odd?
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Are Vowels Even or Odd?
Posted by
Kyle
4:40 PM
- Bassett September 11, 2008 at 12:31 PM
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on principle, I refuse to answer because it seems a ridiculous question. if a gun was to my head, i'd say odd, because for some reason more indivisible numbers (1,2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19, etc.) are odd ... so somehow that equates to it being a vowel ... I know ... stupid.
I would imagine that they are trying to understand if pepole see the world via numbers ... I know a few folks who think that way. - Bassett September 11, 2008 at 12:42 PM
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i remember seeing a tv program about seeing the world numerically on an autistic savant. here's the person, and a clip ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTIApotjNI4 - Anonymous September 11, 2008 at 7:55 PM
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Ok, so I cheated, I just thought it would be fun to be the one percent who thinks vowels are blue (or pink or any other color for that matter) squares. Although, I'd probably make them circles, not squares, square vowels seems an odd (no pun intended) grouping to me :)
- Ben September 11, 2008 at 10:02 PM
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Actually, I think of vowels as female and consonants as male. And since I think of even numbers as feminine and consonants as masculine, and I equate the two. (It probably has something to do with the fact that in elementary school, Miss "A" Achoo was a girl)
- hobbes October 1, 2008 at 9:58 AM
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I agree with Ruthie's comment about even numbers being feminine and odds masculine--but I have never ascribed gender to letters directly. People have some weird synesthesias, if these can even be classified as such. All I can do with letters is put them in order, and, as Kyle already posted, they're all odd.
K+A
Psalms 139:9-10 If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
No doubt about it "vowels are even". Enjoyed your blog sent to me by Ann Nuckolls. Gail LaHatte