<p>I (used to) know that my country formats large numbers as <code>1.234.567,89</code> for ease of reading -- we use a decimal comma instead of the decimal point. But I spend a lot of time browsing sites written in American English, that I keep seeing <code>1,234,567.89</code> way too often.</p>
<p>To make the matters worse, a lot of software is badly localized, so even though the whole document is written in my native language, I keep seeing the American way of writing numbers mixed with my language.</p>
<p>I've seen both variants so many times in different contexts, that I can no longer easily tell what's correct. When I was younger, I was exposed only to the way it's written in my native language on paper; later, I was exposed to the US texts (which were confusing at first) and an incorrect mixture of US formatting with my language (which was even more confusing at first).</p>
<p>Now, it seems like my senses are numbed down and I don't even notice the chosen format anymore. When I read, I parse both with equal ease; when I write, I choose the format at random.</p>
<p>It seems like this phenomenon might have a general name, because it doesn't have to be about writing numbers. So it's not about forgetting, or even being exposed to the wrong answer -- it's explicitly about being exposed to a <em>mixture</em> of correct and incorrect “answers”. If I kept seeing the wrong thing, I might wrongly make a habit of doing it the wrong way -- in what I'm describing, it's like I accepted both ways and I'm having difficulty recalling which was the &quot;original&quot; way I used to know it.</p>
<p>To sum up, is there a name of the phenomenon when you're confused on what's correct because you've been exposed to the mixture of correct and incorrect variants too much?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-17T14:31:46.673Z
I've heard "epistemic indeterminacy" used to describe this (being in a state of epistemic indeterminacy about that), but looking-up the definition I discover it doesn't seem to quite fit. I'm not sure there is a specific term and maybe it's just loosely clumped under that umbrella.
Jiminy Cricket.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-07-17T15:26:46.910Z
Try living in Canada where dates are usually written as *dd/mm/yy* or *mm/dd/yy*.  I've even seen both formats used on the same cash-register receipt (store purchase and credit card payment).  And just to standardize it, sometimes it's the much more reasonable *yy/mm/dd*. [xkcd: Standards](https://xkcd.com/927/).
Ray Butterworth
<long-term-memory>
A name of the phenomenon when you're confused on what's correct because you've been exposed to the mixture of correct and incorrect variants too much?
Lazar
# A name of the phenomenon when you're confused on what's correct because you've been exposed to the mixture of correct and incorrect variants too much?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-07-17)

I (used to) know that my country formats large numbers as `1.234.567,89` for ease of reading -- we use a decimal comma instead of the decimal point. But I spend a lot of time browsing sites written in American English, that I keep seeing `1,234,567.89` way too often.

To make the matters worse, a lot of software is badly localized, so even though the whole document is written in my native language, I keep seeing the American way of writing numbers mixed with my language.

I've seen both variants so many times in different contexts, that I can no longer easily tell what's correct. When I was younger, I was exposed only to the way it's written in my native language on paper; later, I was exposed to the US texts (which were confusing at first) and an incorrect mixture of US formatting with my language (which was even more confusing at first).

Now, it seems like my senses are numbed down and I don't even notice the chosen format anymore. When I read, I parse both with equal ease; when I write, I choose the format at random.

It seems like this phenomenon might have a general name, because it doesn't have to be about writing numbers. So it's not about forgetting, or even being exposed to the wrong answer -- it's explicitly about being exposed to a *mixture* of correct and incorrect “answers”. If I kept seeing the wrong thing, I might wrongly make a habit of doing it the wrong way -- in what I'm describing, it's like I accepted both ways and I'm having difficulty recalling which was the "original" way I used to know it.

To sum up, is there a name of the phenomenon when you're confused on what's correct because you've been exposed to the mixture of correct and incorrect variants too much?

**Tags:** long-term-memory

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I've heard "epistemic indeterminacy" used to describe this (being in a state of epistemic indeterminacy about that), but looking-up the definition I discover it doesn't seem to quite fit. I'm not sure there is a specific term and maybe it's just loosely clumped under that umbrella.  
> **username_2**: Try living in Canada where dates are usually written as *dd/mm/yy* or *mm/dd/yy*.  I've even seen both formats used on the same cash-register receipt (store purchase and credit card payment).  And just to standardize it, sometimes it's the much more reasonable *yy/mm/dd*. [xkcd: Standards](https://xkcd.com/927/).  

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## 0 answers

