June 4, 2010

Can you read this?

We have been talking about eye tracking in class this week, which is how a person experiences words and visuals on a page. One of my classmates mentioned a website that used the below passage as an example, and I thought it was quite interesting. See if you can read it...

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

And, just to compare, here's the correct paragraph...

I couldn't believe that I could actually understand what I was reading. Using the incredible power of the human brain, according to research at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a total, mess and you can read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole. Amazing, huh? Yeah and I always thought spelling was important! See if your friends can read this too!

Pretty interesting, eh?

4 comments:

  1. I remember hearing about this site, but I could never find it. Crazy how our eyes can see things!

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  2. Where do you find this stuff?

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  3. Amanda Hope9/6/10 11:02 AM

    Hehe... around! And from classmates!

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