Interesting word study

[Calhoun07]

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer
In waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is
that frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae
we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy.

[Joe Mama]

Did you make this post with your eyes closed cus' you hit the new thread button. http://forums.toonzone.net/images/smilies/sweat.gif

[Fish]

I had no problems whatsoever reading it Cal - Intruiging...

Laters

<>< F I S H ><>

[The Falcon]

i was surprised at how easily i could read that. it was more difficult than if the letters were in the right order, but easy still

noclaF

[Lucky Bob]

Wahrevte

[Slash Tompson]

Actually I did find it difficult to read a few words, but only because I confused it with words that are spelled similarly.

[Tienshin]

Tath's wried rseacrh, but I udnretsood waht was wirtiten.

[Barb Gordon]

interesting! At first I was like waaa? But I read it all perfectly and without any hassle. That's some neat research. Course it'll probably allow people to do a worse job typing or writing, lol.

~Barb

[Digu Volz]

Nice, but people better not start writing like that. It'd be as absurd as allowing college students to use netspeak.

[DianaGohan]

I doubt anyone would speak like that for real, but it would be funny to hear as a joke or something. And yeah it's easy to understand. Adn nott thast hrad to do as werll.

[Jave]

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer
In waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is
that frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae
we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy.
This should be pasted into the TZ quote collection. :D

[Elven Moon]

I understood every word ;)

[Terminatah]

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer
In waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is
that frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae
we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy.It not only takes longer to read, it's especially unreliable if the author leaves grammar and spelling mistakes, as you have just done (well, not you, the person who actually wrote this). And yes, it is possible to have a spelling mistake when writing words with rearranged letters; this is achieved by including the wrong letters.

WahrevteHere we have someone who has left the first letter unchanged, but didn't leave the last letter. This adds to the confusion.

I doubt anyone would speak like that for real, but it would be funny to hear as a joke or something. And yeah it's easy to understand. Adn nott thast hrad to do as werll.Here, this is ironic, because Diana is telling us how easy it is, and she's doing it wrong by adding foreign letters instead of just rearranging the correct ones.

Folks, this is just hocus pocus. This pasted university study proves nothing useful, it only makes things more confusing, and it leads to a bunch of peeps sitting around discussing how easy it is in a thread where NO ONE has yet done it right.

-Terminatah

[Kat Pryde]

rllaey? tat'hs jsut cool resarech.. u sure its true, english class is my favorite because of my good spelling but this is still cool

[sl4]

Wow, I cluod alluatcy raed taht wiht no porlbmes.

Why am I tpynig liek tihs? It's an isnlut to my itnlelginece! Waht a cazry fool I am. :p

[Lucky Bob]

So, where's jwl?

[Tienshin]

So, where's jwl?

aparrnelty haindeg tihs rearsch taem.

I wsih I kenw taht iodit. :(

[Maxie Zeus]

Folks, this is just hocus pocus. This pasted university study proves nothing useful, it only makes things more confusing, and it leads to a bunch of peeps sitting around discussing how easy it is in a thread where NO ONE has yet done it right.

I don't know if I'd call it hocus pocus. Anyone who has tried copyediting text will find the theory plausible, simply because it is so easy to miss even obviously mispelled words, and when you pay attention to what you are actually doing when reading, you'll notice that you "see" words and sentences in chunks, not as discrete letters attached to each other.

Still, you are right that the stated conclusion does not follow from the experimental results. (At least, it doesn't obviously follow from what was posted, which sounds more like idiot journalism. The original research -- I hope -- was a lot more careful.) Just off the top of my head:

It deos not ctnorol for wdros in wcihh the ieoirntrs are ctllpmoeey slebacrmd, vsuers wrdos in wichh sficanignit sbllayles or cansonont clstrues raiemn itacnt.

It deos not ctnorol for "cteounxtal" cuels. Wehre ltos of sohrt wdors taht are esay to ddoece are istepnserred wtih the lnog wdros taht are vrey meixd up, it is psbolsiy eeaisr to rczgenoie the lneogr wodrs than it wluod be if the iptssererend etnmlees were tmeveslhes ceslloy jspetouaxd.

Grammar surely plays a huge role in how we experience reading. The best way to copyedit for spelling mistakes is to read a sentence backward. Put it this way: Backward sentence a read to is mitakes spelling for copyedit to way best the. (Yes, I cheated; but it's hard to miss, ain't it?) I'm not a researcher, but I would speculate that we are so used to the rhythms of grammar -- and are so good at "getting" what people are thinking, simply based on context and our own experience -- that we can pick up on what the person has said (or is going to say) even before ... what? Can anyone guess? Do I have to write the end of the sentence before you know what the words are going to be? If not, are you really even going to "see" the words, let alone read them?

It also ignores "degree" of difficulty. It may be true that preserving first and last letters makes for "easier" reading than some other combination. Still, it would take a lot more contrast cases (serhapp sasec eherw gverythine si dreservep, txcepe that tirsf dna tasl setterl are dwitches) to see exactly where the difference lies and how to account for those differences.

[ZorBrak]

Yaeh tihs cihck I konw sohwed me tihs erailer tdoay I tihnk it's pertty itneresitng

[Delthayre]

it certainly makes sense. English writing isn't that far from Chinese writing in some respects. While I had little trouble reading it, I read if more slowly than I normally would.

I think later today I'll have to whip out Sampson's Writing Systems, I think it had a part addressing this.

[Red]

Wow, I funod taht esay to raed!

I lvoe it!

~Red Ganit