Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy

A couple of years ago there was an email going around that claimed to explain how we read. The email began:

“Aoccdrnig to a 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 porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”

Considering how scrambled up the letters are, it seems strangely easy to read. But sadly, before you ditch the dictionary, I have to tell you it’s a bit of a con. A psycholinguist working at Cambridge University explains that although we don’t read each letter individually, the middle letters still play a big part in reading.

Hardly a surprise I suppose but after reading the text above it’s easy to be taken in.

About the author

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology.

He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” (Da Capo, 2003) and several ebooks.

SOURCE: PYSBLOG