5 ms·

This reminds me of the meme that went around a few years ago (dear god, 2003!?), claiming that Cambridge researchers showed that you had no trouble reading scra

This reminds me of the meme that went around a few years ago (dear god, 2003!?), claiming that Cambridge researchers showed that you had no trouble reading scrambled word text: "Aoccdrnig to rscheearch 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 a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe." Of course, it later circulated that you could absolutely make hard-to-read scrambled text, it really depended what words and how scrambled. Anyhow, because the Internet is magic, an actual researcher from Cambridge has since posted a more thorough examination of the phenomenon, with counter-examples and proper citation: http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/ http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/

giancarlostoro 11y ago
I think it works best with words you recognize, I'm reading this article and I can't figure out the words I don't recognize, it also is a bit slower to read when all the letters are jumping around every other second. If that sentence had any words I had never seen or heard of before I probably couldn't tell you what the word is supposed to be.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  > I think it works best with words you recognize, I'm reading this article and I can't figure out the words I don't recognize "typoglycemia", for instance?
  - giancarlostoro 11y ago
    Indeed, was wondering what that word was, there was a few others, which kind of deterred me continuing reading the article sadly.
jackmaney 11y ago
I know that an anecdote is not data, etc, etc, but I can't read that garbage. I may as well be trying to decrypt it.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
This actually seems like a problem with the implementation linked here: it seems to avoid scrambling the beginning or end of the word, and as a result you can mostly read the text without too much difficulty. To more accurately convey the problems faced by someone with dyslexia, the words should be scrambled in a way that doesn't leave them easy to make out.
- geon 11y ago
  That is entirely intentional. It is still possible to read. At least short wods, and the longer ones you recognize, and can infer from context. The jumping text is mostly distracting.
  - cmdrfred 11y ago
    I'm dyslexic but I have no trouble reading, I just flip letters and numbers around while they are stored in my head primarily. I dont look at individual letters as much the shape of words and context clues so changing a letter or two doesn't matter. If this effect was about half the speed I might get though the article without noticing.
    - photoJ 11y ago
      I'd love to know how people try and mitigate thier LD. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11224017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11224017
- xerophyte12932 11y ago
  I think one of the factors you are missing is that we haven't had dyslexia all our lives. We have read the unscrambled version so much that the scrambled versions rarely deter us from reading at normal speed. But a real dyslexic never had that chance so their struggle is far greater. It's like when you come across words you don't know or can't guess. Even when you stare at the word for quite some time, you can't make sense of what it is.
Paul-ish 11y ago
It may remind you, because the original page links to the Wikipedia page for that phenomenon. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia
kamaal 11y ago
We can only read them because we know what the original spelling is. A dyslexic kid just starting out to read and write, would have no prior knowledge of words to refer to. If we don't know what the correct pronunciation for a word is, or its spelling to start with. All the best trying to read or write with such a condition.
l0c0b0x 11y ago
I read this without a problem as I scrolled to the right... when I was done, all the text was still moving. Great eye/mind trick!
mchaver 11y ago
I would guess part of the reason why native speakers (and probably fluent speakers) can read that text is because of linguistics probability (Bayesian probability). Humans seem to use probability of phrases to fill in blanks in speech/reading. For example, if you see/hear the phrase "I am" there is a pretty high chance that the next word is one of the following: an adjective, the person's name, a/an or here because of syntax. Or if someone says "would you like a cup of", you can guess that the next word is likely some sort of liquid because that is what goes in a cup. Similarly, you can sometimes finish other people's sentences because of probability. The word scrambling breaks down, as mentioned in the link, with ambiguous words where changing the order makes it look like another word and unfamiliar words.
- tkinom 11y ago
  I am pretty sure I am dyslexic. My favour slogan is "Dyslexic of the World Untie!"
  - estefan 11y ago
    Just don't send your Christmas wishlist to Satan...
- marincounty 11y ago
  I don't know why most people can read scrambled words. I have no proof to what I am going to propose. I had a horrid time learning how to read. I had a worse time learning how to spell. It all changed around the end of 3rd grade. What changed! I just memorized what the words looked like visually. You could misspell a word/words, and it didn't matter. I was looking at what a word looked like visually. Even now, I have no problem understands typos/misspelling, and never see the need to correct someone. I have a feeling there are many people out there who are reading like myself. I don't know, just have a feeling. I do transpose letters in in writing, but I don't think I'm I have dyslexia. Once I realized my process of reading, I caught up to the other kids. I say my process. It's probably everyone's process. I really don't know. All I know is the way I was taught to read was useless. I was never taught how to memorize, other than route repetition. Route repetition didn't work for myself. Even today I know what 8 X 8 is by visualizing the 64. It looks like most of you breezed through high school, and college. So you don't need to know what helped me. What helped me in learning was visualizing. In college, I took notes once. I tried to make each page look visually different. I usually drew doodles, or detailed drawings all over the pages. For instance, when I needed to memoririze all the parts of the Femur bone, I drew the bone on the page and labeled all the areas I needed to know. Even years later, I can bring up that page in my head. And no, I don't have a idetic memory. It's just the way I got through school. I definetly had a learning problem. The specialists at the time offered no help. I got off topic, but if you have, or know of a kid who's not keeping up in school, pass on this visualization method. It's simple. You don't need to pay for a course. It's easy concept. (By the way, I'm still not a natural reader. I'm not the guy who can just pick up a book(fiction), and zip through it. I find myself losing my place on the page. I sometimes need to put my finger on the line I'm reading. My mind starts to wander. Although, if the author is a skilled writer, like Nabrakov; I have no problem getting through the book? I don't have this problem when reading most non-fiction? It could be I just don't like a lot of fiction?)
Your_Creator 11y ago
it seems probable that phenomenon may be related to what's going on in the brains of people with dyslexia
drostie 11y ago
It's testimony to the power of the effect, though, that the two times Matt uses (sic) [when decoding "rscheearch" as "research" and "researcher"] he uses it incorrectly. Possibly some copy-editor has fixed both inconsistently or something, but I think he just didn't unscramble the word manually. The proper misspelling is probably "researchch".

giancarlostoro 11y ago

I think it works best with words you recognize, I'm reading this article and I can't figure out the words I don't recognize, it also is a bit slower to read when all the letters are jumping around every other second. If that sentence had any words I had never seen or heard of before I probably couldn't tell you what the word is supposed to be.

JoshTriplett 11y ago
> I think it works best with words you recognize, I'm reading this article and I can't figure out the words I don't recognize "typoglycemia", for instance?
- giancarlostoro 11y ago
  Indeed, was wondering what that word was, there was a few others, which kind of deterred me continuing reading the article sadly.

jackmaney 11y ago

I know that an anecdote is not data, etc, etc, but I can't read that garbage. I may as well be trying to decrypt it.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

This actually seems like a problem with the implementation linked here: it seems to avoid scrambling the beginning or end of the word, and as a result you can mostly read the text without too much difficulty. To more accurately convey the problems faced by someone with dyslexia, the words should be scrambled in a way that doesn't leave them easy to make out.

geon 11y ago
That is entirely intentional. It is still possible to read. At least short wods, and the longer ones you recognize, and can infer from context. The jumping text is mostly distracting.
- cmdrfred 11y ago
  I'm dyslexic but I have no trouble reading, I just flip letters and numbers around while they are stored in my head primarily. I dont look at individual letters as much the shape of words and context clues so changing a letter or two doesn't matter. If this effect was about half the speed I might get though the article without noticing.
  - photoJ 11y ago
    I'd love to know how people try and mitigate thier LD. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11224017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11224017
xerophyte12932 11y ago
I think one of the factors you are missing is that we haven't had dyslexia all our lives. We have read the unscrambled version so much that the scrambled versions rarely deter us from reading at normal speed. But a real dyslexic never had that chance so their struggle is far greater. It's like when you come across words you don't know or can't guess. Even when you stare at the word for quite some time, you can't make sense of what it is.

Paul-ish 11y ago

It may remind you, because the original page links to the Wikipedia page for that phenomenon. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia

kamaal 11y ago

We can only read them because we know what the original spelling is. A dyslexic kid just starting out to read and write, would have no prior knowledge of words to refer to. If we don't know what the correct pronunciation for a word is, or its spelling to start with. All the best trying to read or write with such a condition.

l0c0b0x 11y ago

I read this without a problem as I scrolled to the right... when I was done, all the text was still moving. Great eye/mind trick!

mchaver 11y ago

I would guess part of the reason why native speakers (and probably fluent speakers) can read that text is because of linguistics probability (Bayesian probability). Humans seem to use probability of phrases to fill in blanks in speech/reading. For example, if you see/hear the phrase "I am" there is a pretty high chance that the next word is one of the following: an adjective, the person's name, a/an or here because of syntax. Or if someone says "would you like a cup of", you can guess that the next word is likely some sort of liquid because that is what goes in a cup. Similarly, you can sometimes finish other people's sentences because of probability. The word scrambling breaks down, as mentioned in the link, with ambiguous words where changing the order makes it look like another word and unfamiliar words.

tkinom 11y ago
I am pretty sure I am dyslexic. My favour slogan is "Dyslexic of the World Untie!"
- estefan 11y ago
  Just don't send your Christmas wishlist to Satan...
marincounty 11y ago
I don't know why most people can read scrambled words. I have no proof to what I am going to propose. I had a horrid time learning how to read. I had a worse time learning how to spell. It all changed around the end of 3rd grade. What changed! I just memorized what the words looked like visually. You could misspell a word/words, and it didn't matter. I was looking at what a word looked like visually. Even now, I have no problem understands typos/misspelling, and never see the need to correct someone. I have a feeling there are many people out there who are reading like myself. I don't know, just have a feeling. I do transpose letters in in writing, but I don't think I'm I have dyslexia. Once I realized my process of reading, I caught up to the other kids. I say my process. It's probably everyone's process. I really don't know. All I know is the way I was taught to read was useless. I was never taught how to memorize, other than route repetition. Route repetition didn't work for myself. Even today I know what 8 X 8 is by visualizing the 64. It looks like most of you breezed through high school, and college. So you don't need to know what helped me. What helped me in learning was visualizing. In college, I took notes once. I tried to make each page look visually different. I usually drew doodles, or detailed drawings all over the pages. For instance, when I needed to memoririze all the parts of the Femur bone, I drew the bone on the page and labeled all the areas I needed to know. Even years later, I can bring up that page in my head. And no, I don't have a idetic memory. It's just the way I got through school. I definetly had a learning problem. The specialists at the time offered no help. I got off topic, but if you have, or know of a kid who's not keeping up in school, pass on this visualization method. It's simple. You don't need to pay for a course. It's easy concept. (By the way, I'm still not a natural reader. I'm not the guy who can just pick up a book(fiction), and zip through it. I find myself losing my place on the page. I sometimes need to put my finger on the line I'm reading. My mind starts to wander. Although, if the author is a skilled writer, like Nabrakov; I have no problem getting through the book? I don't have this problem when reading most non-fiction? It could be I just don't like a lot of fiction?)

Your_Creator 11y ago

it seems probable that phenomenon may be related to what's going on in the brains of people with dyslexia

drostie 11y ago

It's testimony to the power of the effect, though, that the two times Matt uses (sic) [when decoding "rscheearch" as "research" and "researcher"] he uses it incorrectly. Possibly some copy-editor has fixed both inconsistently or something, but I think he just didn't unscramble the word manually. The proper misspelling is probably "researchch".