Every so often when I am reading something I read the wrong word or see another word, completely changing the meaning of the sentence. I usually pick up on it if I look at it again, and when I do, I think - What the f### just happened to my brain? It happens regardless of what it is, though if it's something I have little interest in then it's more frequent. It's not restricted to one language either, it happens whenever I read anything in Korean or Japanese too. It's annoying, because it can change the entire meaning of a sentence if you change one of the words around in your mind. I find it happens when I am listening to long-winded sentences too.
Anyone else experience this phenomenon? Am I dyslexic? Because I have always had this suspicion I am, if ever so slightly.. Or is this a side effect of becoming multi-lingual?
Re: Seeing the wrong words
2I have the same thing (english only, as non multi-lingual).Hunter wrote:Every so often when I am reading something I read the wrong word or see another word, completely changing the meaning of the sentence. I usually pick up on it if I look at it again, and when I do, I think - What the f### just happened to my brain? It happens regardless of what it is, though if it's something I have little interest in then it's more frequent. It's not restricted to one language either, it happens whenever I read anything in Korean or Japanese too. It's annoying, because it can change the entire meaning of a sentence if you change one of the words around in your mind. I find it happens when I am listening to long-winded sentences too.
Anyone else experience this phenomenon? Am I dyslexic? Because I have always had this suspicion I am, if ever so slightly.. Or is this a side effect of becoming multi-lingual?
I would guess that it's down to something simple like pattern-recognition* mixed with some subconscious filtering... two layers of competing pre-processing. In that case it'd be expected to be more frequent if you are less interested in something.
*after all, the brain is IIRC more or less a giant pattern-recognition device
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Same principle, innit?Hunter wrote:The odd thing is it happens when I am typing too. I sometimes have 'word typos' where I type a completely out of place word in a sentence.
I think - an there's no scientific basis I've looked at for this, it's just an intuition - that there's a degree of parallelism going on. You have several active threads of thinking going on, which sometimes interact... sometimes one of those threads, say a subconscious sentence/phrase formation, overlaps with a conscious one directing keys to fingers (or translating read symbols into comprehended words), and the result gets slightly mixed.
I dunno if it's just me, but it's a bit like when I'm writing ACCIDENTALLY IN ALL-CAPS (*cough*) or something, and feel obliged to apologise inline rather than just delete it - like the brain overlaps your speaking action (in terms of vocalising words in your head as you read them) with your visual typing action or something.
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I know one thing that happens to me quite frequently is that I'll be speaking or typing while doing something else, like watching TV or listening to a conversation or reading, and I'll mistakenly interject a word I just heard/read into what I'm saying. It happens almost completely subconsciously, too; the word will just pop out without even thinking about it. I don't know how much that applies to what you're describing, though.
A.K.A. Mongoose, for you HLP denizens
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It's your brain trying to multitask and failing. I do it reasonably commonly when I write; working one plot thread, another intrudes on what I'm thinking, you end up with sentence that's half one and half the other.