Human thought crawls at 10 bits per second, Caltech study finds (www.techspot.com)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Thanks to @General_Effort@lemmy.world for the links!

Here’s a link to Caltech’s press release: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/thinking-slowly-the-paradoxical-slowness-of-human-behavior

Here’s a link to the actual paper (paywall): https://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(24)00808-0

Here’s a link to a preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234

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[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 49 points 5 days ago

Bullshit. just reading this and comprehending it, which is thought, far exceeds 10 bits per second.
Speaking which is conveying thought, also far exceed 10 bits per second.

This piece is garbage.

[-] tabular@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Try to read this next part without understanding it. If you know English you will find it impossible to NOT find meaning in these letters displayed in a row. That's more like a subconscious processing. If you're learning to read English then there's likely an active "thought" appearing in your experience. See a difference?

[-] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago

Understanding it is active thought. And processing the words, as words with meaning, is required to formulate a relevant response.

The more than 10 bits each word is are part of your active thought.

[-] tabular@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I think we may disagree on term definitions.

I perceive "active thought" when trying to decipher parts of a sentence I do not already have an understanding of. If I already understand a part then no active thought is perceived by me - like driving a car when nothing eventful is happening. [Note: I don't believe I have 100% accurate perception of my own subjective experience. Trying to focus on subjective experience at all instead of constantly being "lost in thought" is very short lived]

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this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024

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