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        Arimaa >> Off Topic Discussion >> Power of the human mind
        
(Message started by: omar on Jun 17^th, 2005, 1:52pm)

Title: Power of the human mind
Post by omar on Jun 17^th, 2005, 1:52pm

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.

Title: Re: Power of the human mind
Post by PMertens on Jun 17^th, 2005, 2:07pm

are you familiar with the concept of "speed reading" ?

Title: Re: Power of the human mind
Post by Janzert on Jun 18^th, 2005, 11:35am

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.

;)

Janzert

Title: Re: Power of the human mind
Post by omar on Jun 19^th, 2005, 5:11am

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 :-)

Title: Re: Power of the human mind
Post by Janzert on Jun 19^th, 2005, 7:54pm

Yes, it is. But was used as an example showing that the internal order of letters does have some effect when reading.

Related slashdot links are:
Original story http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/15/2227256&tid=134
Counter-example (Part of a slashback) http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/25/2350239&tid=167
And a psychologist's dissection of it. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/28/1328220&mode=thread&tid=134

(Man that was really 2 years ago I read those?)

Janzert