“If you are not going to follow the instructions after you lose, please don\u2019t answer<\/em> \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Your turn! Read the riddle. If your answer is incorrect, I can choose any of your photos and you have to post it along with the riddle. If you answer correctly, I’ll write your name in the comments with a trophy emoji.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Riddle: It’s 7:00 AM. You are asleep and there is a sudden knock on the door. Behind the door are your parents who came to have breakfast. In your fridge are bread, milk (pasteurized), juice, and a jar of jam. To answer, what will you open first? Answer directly through PM only; answers in the comment section will be delet<\/em>ed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Note: It\u2019s not what you think. Read carefully.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My answer was \u201cthe door.\u201d I was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the thing about riddles, they purposely try to lead\nyou down the wrong path. As an \u201cintelligent friend,\u201d I know that and did not\nfall for the obvious wrong path of opening something inside my refrigerator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went back to the beginning of the riddle. Actually, no I\ndidn\u2019t. If I had gone to the beginning of the riddle, my answer would have been\n\u201cmy eyes.\u201d I still would have been wrong. And that\u2019s because I still wouldn\u2019t\nhave gone to the beginning of the riddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The riddle really starts at the beginning of the post. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The part that starts with \u201cRiddle:\u201d is just another wrong path. That wrong path is further disguised by the fact that the question is in the same paragraph. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing my brain did was assume that the riddle\nstarted at the \u201cRiddle:\u201d point of the post. Why wouldn\u2019t it? The previous parts\nof the post refer to the riddle below and are just insulting instructions,\nright? (And who pays attention to insults in Facebook posts?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem is that, because of that assumption, my brain\ndid not process the question correctly. And, since I didn\u2019t process the question\ncorrectly, my brain reinforced the assumption it had already made about where\nthe riddle began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s look at the question in isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “To answer, what will you open first?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me guess, that\u2019s not how you initially read it either.\nMy brain processed the question as, \u201cWhat will you open first?\u201d I won\u2019t say\nthat my brain completely missed the \u201cto answer\u201d part; however, since it didn\u2019t\nfit into the assumptions my brain had already made, it got filed into the \u201cpoor\nwriting\u201d bucket and ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what do you need to open first so that you can provide\nan answer? (If you haven\u2019t figured it out yet, that is what the question\nactually asks.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right, the Messenger app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, they screw with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our brains like what they know, make quick assumptions, and\nstick to them. It has its comfort zone and rarely leaves without a fight. Therefore,\nwhen confronted with something outside the comfort zone, our brain rebels.\nGenerally, that rebellion is to just ignore what doesn\u2019t work. If you know that\nthere\u2019s a trick \u2013 like in a riddle \u2013 you can go back and put the effort into it\nand find the right answer. Just be sure you know where all the tricks are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n -Lorrie Nicoles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, I got caught in a Facebook trap recently. Here was the post: “I’m challenging my intelligent friends to have a crack at guessing the answer to the riddle below. When you think you know, PM me the answer. Don’t answer in the comments; your response will be deleted. “If you are not going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[205,206,207],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reading","tag-brain-processes","tag-how-the-brain-reads","tag-reading-riddles"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat My Brain Did When Reading<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Reading-Brain-sm.png\")
The Question \u2013\nWarning, Spoiler Alert!<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torawriting.com\/sandbox\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/How-Brain-Reads-300x300.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nOther Things Our Brains Do<\/h1>\n\n\n\n