Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Reading text with jumbled letters in words

It was about four years ago when I received an email about how easy it is to read text with scrambled letters in every word -- as long as the first and last letter of each word remains unchanged..

This email story is still in circulation. However, as most email stories circulate, they began to mutate to some extent. The last time I received this story it was attributed to a Cambridge University researcher and read:

According to a researcher at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself but the word as a whole.


It really does work. The preceding paragraph, in jumbled letter format is:

Acocdrnig to a reschearer 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 toatl 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.


And I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmtorant.

How would this affect people with dyslexia who already see words and numbers in a jumbled state?

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