Monday, January 14, 2013

Exploring How the Mind Acquires Information

I ran across the following tidbits:

I met George Fuller.  He worked for his father in a
a furniture factory.  George was trying to sell me the
the sofa that was made in their factory.

and,

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.


Do you have any other examples to show how the mind works a little differntly than you might have originally thought?

If you did not notice in the first paragraph above, please note the repetition of the words at the end of each line and the beginning of the next line. Most people will read this without noticing.

I am dyslexic. I have trouble distinguishing between certain letters. For example, "p" and "b" are very confusing for me, as in "pig" and "big".  Or, between "b" and "d" like in "big" and "dig". It is interesting that I don't confuse "pig" and "dig". I have confused "dog" and "god".  What is surprising to me above with the paragraph about the research at Cambridge University is that I have no trouble reading that paragraph, so why do I have trouble with the words I cited above? I will have to do some research on this point.

Since I am dyslexic, I cannot read very fast.  I think the best I can do is about 100 words a minute.  
I describe it this way.  It takes me a little extra effort to get the information from the page into my brain, but, once I get it in there, I do not have any problem processing it.

I have auditory dyslexia also,  This means that when someone tells me their phone number, I cannot process that information fast enough to get it into my brain. Consequently, I cannot repeat it. It is lost - forever.  Perhaps this is why, when it comes to mathematics, I have no difficulty whatsoever manipulating complex mathematical formulas in my head -- once I have assimilated the formula, that is.

I think that I have a better feel for symmetry than most people. I think it is because of the symmetric dyslexia.  You know "p" and "b" and the like.

I would be very interested to hear from others who suffer from dyslexia. I have not spent much time dwelling on this in my life. I have not discussed it much with others.  The only consequence that has impacted me is that when I was very young I did have difficulty reading and I was left back from 3rd grade to 2nd grade and I didn't perform well when reading any quantity of text was involved.
My way out was through mathematics.  I seemed to have no difficulty with it whatsoever.  







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