The Results are In!
First off, another big thank you to everyone that stepped up to the plate and answered the question via the various methods available.
Secondly, I must stress that I didn't come up with the test, but it has been (and is being) used to study ... what appears to be rather a wide variety of things. And it's a cool "trick", in a sense.
Here are the results in raw numerical form, along with the source of each.
| | Email | LJ | Twitter | (Totals) | (%) |
| A Is Boobaa | 215 | 50 | 188 | (453) | (94%) |
| A Is Kikii | 9 | 7 | 13 | (29) | (6%) |
| (Totals) | (224) | (57) | (201) | (482) | |
There are numerous things which prevent this being a "proper" experiment, namely uncontrolled conditions, possible contamination of the sample by linking the TED talk, previous experience of the test through publications etc. So it's not, strictly speaking, scientific.
It is, however, tremendous fun! Especially the people who added on their justifications and further ponderings to their answers.
As you might be able to tell from the shiny graph and the raw numbers above, a vast majority of people selected A as Boobaa and B as Kikii.
I am most interested in why people chose the "A is Kikii" option. Perhaps proper scientists have already started to ask (and perhaps answer) that question.
A reasonable number of people noted that it was simply onomatopoeia that A is Boobaa and B is Kikii. Some went so far to say that it was Obvious. What I think is fascinating about this particular experiment is that whilst things are indeed "obvious", it begs the question of why do metaphors work in the first place? Why should this abstraction occur in our brains, what evolutionary purpose did it serve (if it has one, or is just a product of unrelated brain functions)?
If you took a look at the TED lecture and was curious, then I recommend having a listen to the 2003 BBC Reith Lectures, which cover much of the same topics, but in a touch more detail (and also go into such things as the appreciation of art, phantom limbs and ... so on)
The BBC Reith Lectures 2003 - "The Emerging Mind"
(I am assuming that non-UK people will be be able to access BBC Radio content, apologies if this is not the case)
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