the brain processes information more slowly than it seems – Science and IT

The speed of human thinking is only 10 bits per second.

Recent studies by scientists from the California Institute of Technology have shown that the speed of human thinking is only 10 bits of information per second. This is in stark contrast to the flood of sensory data that the brain processes at the rate of 100 million bits every second.

This was reported by IFLScience.

In this case, the term “bit” goes beyond its usual digital interpretation, as researchers use the principles of Claude Shannon's information theory to evaluate cognitive processes. For example, the authors compare such a simple matter as determining the sex of a newborn with the transfer of one “shannon” of information. This is significantly less expensive than the large number of bits in the response body, illustrating the difference between raw data and meaningful…