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As far as I know, I don't have dyslexia. I've always been a voracious reader and haven't had the challenges one normally associates with the label. But now a
by ergothus 9y ago
As far as I know, I don't have dyslexia. I've always been a voracious reader and haven't had the challenges one normally associates with the label.
But now and then - maybe once a month, maybe a few days in a row, some normal, easy, word will look _wrong_.
The letters don't "jump around", but it looks wrong the way a missplelled word does...I end up staring at it and trying to imagine how it SHOULD be spelled. That'd be less weird for me if it was a word with lots of typical english weirdness, like "necessary", but this happens on really _simple_ words, and usually just one word at any moment. Then later, that particular word stops doing it.
In recent history I can recall this happening with: "tree", "the", "matter", and (ironically) "simple", but I've never noticed any pattern to which words do it, and these are words that only do this for a few minutes or hours, then stop. "the" just looked as wrong as "teh" normally looks wrong, and every instance on the page looks like a glaring error until it subsides.
Does anyone know what does this? It's not a notable problem for me - because these are simple words that I have a lot of familiarity with I can just logically override the emotional component, but it still weirds me out. What else can my brain do this with, making something normal and mundane wrong and alien for a brief period?
FWIW, English is my native language.
- yladiz 9y agoI think what you're referring to is semantic satiation[1], where you hear or see a word often enough that it becomes essentially gibberish and you can't parse it properly. As far as I know I'm not dyslexic but it happens to me sporadically too, but it generally fixes itself within a few minutes. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation
- Baeocystin 9y ago>and these are words that only do this for a few minutes or hours, then stop Some neuron died, and it takes a while for the RAID 5 of the mind to rebuild the array. I'm only half-joking. I know exactly the feeling you're talking about, and it's the just-so reason I came up with to amuse myself. Realistically, it probably a relative of semantic satiation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation
- ergothus 9y agoI should stop using these cheap parts... But seriously, thanks. Just knowing my crazy isn't unique is comforting. Plus, any day that I get to see "See also: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" as a serious entry in Wikipedia is not a terrible day. Between this and someone telling me about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack I'm starting to feel almost normal.