Peanut Butter and Jam

Amazing how the brain works

Aug 18

ShardieFunnies No Comments

I know this is old news but I stumbled across it again on the net. It’s amazing how our brains work. There’s just no way we could have evolved but let me not go into this or else I’m going to have to prove to some of you that The Creator exists (which will actually be an easy task). Anyway, below is a short paragraph of how our minds recognoise words even though they are spelt wrong. See if you can read the following paragraph.

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 total 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. Amzanig huh?

Cool hey. Well as you just read, as long as the first and last letters of a word are in the correct place then our minds can easily recognise the word.

Another amazing thing is how difficult it is to read colours. Take a look at the image below. The test here is to read out loud the COLOUR and not the word. Read the colours and see if you can do it without getting stuck.

Amazing again hey, but apparently there is an explanation. According to Eric Chudler, Ph.D., a neuroscientist (Research Associate Professor) and Director of Education and Outreach at University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials in Seattle, Washington, the words themselves have a strong influence over your ability to say the color. The interference between the different information (what the words say and the color of the words) your brain receives causes a problem. There are two theories that may explain the Stroop effect:

1. Speed of Processing Theory: the interference occurs because words are read faster than colors are named.
2. Selective Attention Theory: the interference occurs because naming colors requires more attention than reading words.

Well, whatever it is, I’m just grateful that I can read in the first place. From me and paeunt btuter and jam – bye.

No related posts.