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Can you read this?

 fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed
 tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.  i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can
sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not
raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh
and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs
forwrad it.

My sister sent me this E-mail and I found it fascinating that I could actually read the message with absolutely no trouble.  It reminded me of our discussion of how the brain fills in the blind spots of our visual system.  I guess this is evidence to support the idea that the brain fills in more than just the blind spot where the retina has no light sensitive cones. 

I searched around the internet for the actual paper written on the study but I was unable to find it.  What I did find were multiple websites proclaiming that this “Cambridge University research” was actually just an urban legend.  Even if there is no scientific research behind this, I still find it amazing.  How did our brains get so smart?  I wonder if young children who have just learned to read are capable of reading jumbled words or if it is a skill one acquires after years of practice.  I have a feeling that children would not be able to comprehend the jumbled words because they tend to read phonetically –that is, they sound out the words letter by letter.  However, at a certain point we are able to look at a word as a whole and recognize it, its sound and its meaning.  But what if the words were taken out of context?  Would we still be able to recognize them?  I have a feeling that would not be as successful if the words were taken out of context.  In the example of the blind spot in the eye, the brain fills in the spot according to what is around it, so I’m thinking syntax is important when attempting to fill in the blanks of words.

How does this relate to our discussion of color and reality?  In reality, the letter combination “blveiee” is not the same this as “believe” but when you surround “blveiee” with  “I cannot blveiee that you just punched me in the face!” Our brains tell us (or most of us) that it has the same meaning.  I suppose this can be likened to wavelengths, cone activation and color perception, in that many combinations of the same letters are perceived as having the same meaning as long as the first and last letter are the same.  Similarly, as long as the same ratio of long and short cones is activated we will perceive yellow.

I’ll do more research and post again soon, but I just wanted to put this out there for everyone to think about!