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From: mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Re: A test of discernment/employment
Message-ID: <877@mcgill-vision.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 5-Sep-87 02:18:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: mcgill-v.877
Posted: Sat Sep  5 02:18:26 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Sep-87 05:39:19 EDT
References: <957@bc-cis.UUCP>
Organization: McGill University, Montreal
Lines: 44
Xref: utgpu misc.jobs.misc:472 comp.misc:1096

In article <957@bc-cis.UUCP>, preis@bc-cis.UUCP (David Preisler) writes:
> A year ago I stumbled onto this test.  It was given to a Freshman
> English class (the results were not good).  It might make a good
> (non-technical) pre-employment screen...

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 			A Test Of Discernment
> 
> Please do exactly as instructed. Ask no questions. Under no
> circumstances are you to speak or ask a question.  Be sure to keep
> your eyes on your own paper.  When you have finished, sit quietly,
> not speaking a word.

....so far so good....

> 1.  Read all directions before you do anything.
[2 through 18, assorted directions for scribbling on the test paper]
> 19. Shut your eyes for just a few seconds.  Then proceed to line 21.
> 20. Now that you have finished reading carefully, do only sentence three.

This seems as though it were also an exercise in paradox resolution.
Okay, I do exactly as instructed.  Since nobody told me otherwise, I
will start with step 1.  So I read all the directions.  Now presumably
I proceed to step 2, since step 1 didn't say anything about carrying
out what I just read, or indeed even bothering to remember what I just
read.  So in the absence of explicit directions to do otherwise, I
proceed on the directions implicit in the numbering of the steps.
Onward, eventually to step 19.  However, I find myself unable to carry
out line 19 because there is no line 21.  What shall I do?  Worse,
given directive 20, I cannot "do exactly as instructed" because I have
been instructed to do mutually incompatible things (steps 2 and 4-19
are instructions to do things and therefore must be done, but doing as
instructed by step 20 requires that I not do 2 and 4-19, or for that
matter 1, which I have already done! eek!).  Worse, I am forbidden to
request additional information with which to resolve this conflict.

Presumably you wanted me to obey lines 1, 20, and 3 in that order.  How
do you justify this?  Presumably you feel that step 1 implies carrying
out step 20 next instead of step 2?  Why?  And how does step 20 allow
you to have already performed step 1, which is explicitly forbidden?

					der Mouse

				(mouse@mcgill-vision.uucp)