Surely some of you have seen this or something similar on facebook or, well, anywhere really: “ACDRNOICG TO RSAREECH AT CMABRIGDE UINERVTISY, IT DSENO’T MTAETR WAHT OERDR THE LTTERES IN A WROD ARE, THE OLNY IPROAMTNT TIHNG IS TAHT THE FRSIT AND LSAT LTTEER BE IN THE RGHIT PCLAE. TIHS IS BCUSEAE THE HUAMN MNID DEOS NOT RAED ERVEY LTETER BY ISTLEF, BUT THE WROD AS A WLOHE. IF YOU CAN RAED TIHS, PSOT IT TO YUOR WLAL. OLNY 55% OF PLEPOE CAN”
Can someone please help me explain to someone that it really is not the mind-blowing statement that they feel it is? Also, the 55% seems hard to find as being accurate when looking for actual research on the topic. If it is as amazing as some seem to think, please explain that, but it just simply seems goofy to me. I really think that anyone that is literate could handle figuring it all out but just think that most are able to do it quickly. I personally think it would take longer for me to read a book written this way, because even though I really had no problems in reading it did definitely catch myself re-scanning a word with my eyes once or twice.
I believe what’s happening here is that most people read whole words at a time - interpreting them as discrete shapes garnished by the letters they comprise, rather than as a sequence of individual characters.
Well, they made the thing harder to read by sticking it in CAPS. Part of the reason the word/letter order thing works is that the outline shape of the word does not change much as long as the first and last letters are correct and the rest of the letters are randomised.
Someone has posted a similar text with the first and last letters correct, but all the other letters reversed - this was much harder to read. I am pretty sure that if you put all the tall letters first or last you would have similar difficulties. A good link discussing this meme is here.
The blurb as posted is a bit contradictory. To start with it says it doesn’t matter what order the middle letters are in and then it goes on to say only 55% of people can read it, so for 45% the order of the letters does matter.
I think this phenomenon contributes to learning to read being both harder and easier than it might be. I’m studying Japanese, and I can look at many characters and know from the general shape and line density what it says, so my eye moves on to the next, but when it comes time to write the character I have no idea. Similarly there are kids in my preschool class who can “read” all their classmates’ names, but can’t begin to write them. They can form the individual letters, but have little idea which letters are present after the first one. Yet if we couldn’t predict and move on, reading would take forever.
I’ve seen that in the past, sans the 55% nonsense at the end. My guess is someone just tacked it on when they reposted it 'cause everything looks more plausible with a percentage value attached.
I certainly remember a time as a child when I could not yet actually read, but would guess what each word was based on its first letter and the context. Sometimes I got it right, sometimes wildly wrong.
I know I missed at least one, because I remember arguing with someone about this in one of these threads, and that argument isn’t in any of the ones listed above.
Also notice that the letters are transposed with their neighbor and not random. If the urban legend were correct, you should be able to read these three words with no problem.
Yeah, but CARDIGEBM doesn’t have the first and last letters in the right place.
But, as Richard Pearse says, the “only 55% of people can read it” statement totally contradicts the rest of it. (I’ve never seen it with the stat attached, which appears to be total bkloclos.)