Humans (animals, really) is a high-performance pattern recognition machine.
Don’t believe me? Let’s try this small experiment!
Click the black box above to start the experiment. It will only play once!
Done? Now, let’s try that exact same experiment again, but with a different image.
Click the black box above to start the second experiment.
“Subitizing” is a type of visual pattern recognition where one can instantly tell when there are small number of objects in front of you without actually “counting” them one by one. It highlights how our brains are incredibly optimized for instant pattern recognition rather than step-by-step processing. This trait is shared by other animals to quickly assess threats or food sources!
Other pattern recognition that we (unconsciously) do every day:
- Interpreting comedy and parodies
- Audio filtering
- Reading messy handwriting
So, where am I going with this? Well, I want to show you the human-powered pattern recognition engine before we delve into mathematics-powered pattern recognition, and to draw the line about human’s “effortless” pattern recognition vs “conscious” pattern recognition.