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Studies: Brain sees common words as whole units, has two parallel systems for linking sight of words to speech
Grant Barrett
San Diego, California
1532 Posts
(Offline)
1
2009/05/01 - 11:11am

Brain reads word-by-word. "One of the studies, published in the April 30 Neuron, suggests that a visual-processing area of the brain recognizes common words as whole units. Another study, published online April 27 in PLoS ONE, reveals that the brain operates two fast parallel systems for reading, linking visual recognition of words to speech."

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
2
2009/05/01 - 12:57pm

Maybe they should also test pairs of words, the real one and the mixed up one (or similarly mixed-up) from this passage:

"I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling wat ipmorantt!"

BTW, I qtsioeun the cnlouocisn of tihs paagsse, bsuaece msot seilnlpg eorrrs do not cmoe form smlipy mnxiig up all the rhgit leretts.

Eemmtt

Guest
3
2009/05/01 - 3:14pm

What a great passage, Emmett! It sure seems to dramatically demonstrate how our brain processes words as units. Oddly enough, it was your name at the end that made me hesitate and stutter a bit. My brain wanted to process it as "emit" rather than Emmett. Maybe because emit is a common word while Emmett is not?

Guest
4
2009/05/02 - 11:07pm

Wow, it rlaley knid of faerks me out taht I was able to raed that pgasase wtohiut any pmobrles. Maybe that's one reason why the papers I write for school always have at least one or two typos that sneak past my eyes no matter how carefully I proofread them.

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