Sectorgame

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?

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 have the same thing (english only, as non 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

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.

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.

Same principle, innit?

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.

It happens on and off, usually when I'm reading something in english.

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.

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.

This happens to me while writing but never while reading. Interesting.

I think reading, like most complex mental activities, is partly predictive - you don't actually read everything on a 1:1 basis, you throw in what you expect and interpolate. Maybe your system is too enthusiastic.

Happens to me sometimes too, but usually only when I'm not 100% engaged in reading.

Happens to me too, usually in chat rooms. Someone types one thing, I read something totally different.