Why It Feels Like Your Phone Is Vibrating In Your Pocket When It Isn't
Google Nexus 4 Available contract-free! For $300! Assuming Google ever gets more in stock, that is. Dan Nosowitz *bzzzzzzzzzzzzz* How many times have you pulled your phone out of your pocket, thinking you felt a vibration that could mean any number of treats (Twitter replies, emails, phone calls, text messages, a turn in whatever game you're playing)? A a study found that 80 percent of respondents felt that phantom buzz. The BBC takes a look at the psychological underpinnings of this phenomenon (and we use that term very, very lightly). Those underpinnings mostly involve signal detection theory, which is basically the ability to decipher stimuli from random patterns. That might mean hearing your name being called in a noisy room, or it might mean figuring out if your phone is buzzing in your pocket. In the latter case, you have four possible outcomes to an attempted answer to the question "is this...