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Topic: Power of the human mind (Read 914 times) |
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omar
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Power of the human mind
« on: Jun 17th, 2005, 1:52pm » |
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A friend forwarded this message to me.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheeachr at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Pretty cool how we can just skip the details and figure out
from context and cues what the words should be.
I showed it to Aamir and at first he was having trouble because he was trying to sound out the words. Then I told him to not read it literally, but just say the words that he thinks it should be. So right away he read it fluently.
I think we go even beyond the level of a word and read it at the level of phrases and overall meaning and structure. There is probably both a top down and bottom up process going on as we read. This is a pretty nice demonstration of that.
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PMertens
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Re: Power of the human mind
« Reply #1 on: Jun 17th, 2005, 2:07pm » |
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are you familiar with the concept of "speed reading" ?
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Janzert
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Re: Power of the human mind
« Reply #2 on: Jun 18th, 2005, 11:35am » |
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Of course there is also the counter-example:
Quote:| Anidroccg to crad cniyrrag lcitsiugnis planoissefors at an uemannd, utisreviny in Bsitirh Cibmuloa, and crartnoy to the duoibus cmials of the ueticnd rcraeseh, a slpmie, macinahcel ioisrevnn of ianretnl cretcarahs araepps sneiciffut to csufnoe the eadyrevy oekoolnr. |
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Janzert
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omar
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Re: Power of the human mind
« Reply #3 on: Jun 19th, 2005, 5:11am » |
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This is a bit of an extreame counter example. I still think that if a program randomly shuffled the internal letters, most words could still be read. Only words which one is not already familiar with (especially long words) would pose a difficulty.
Neat way to test ones vocabulary 
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| « Last Edit: Jun 19th, 2005, 5:12am by omar » |
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