Why, after reading this, does the the brain not recognize the second the?

[ddrmario123]

LOL I just had to share this. Also this is the explanation:

Because when we read we tend to to skip certain obvious words, so that we can focus more on on the less common words. We recognize them and skip over them so quickly that we don't always notice when there are two of of them.

Can you find all four doubles above? 

[Kotro]

That's awesome - I really didn't notice the doubles the first time reading it. Amazing the stuff your brain can filter, reminds me of those "odrer of lterets dno't matetr" kind of exercises.

[Amalia]

This is so cool, I didn't notice the doubles either. I have found 3 of them, I'll come back for the fourth because I have to get to work now. I have something to talk about in my break now )

[MyDigitalpoint]

i didn't read the doubles at first either.

It's curious how our brains work, really  :grin:

[Carneita2000]

LOL I just had to share this. Also this is the explanation:

Because when we read we tend to to skip certain obvious words, so that we can focus more on on the less common words. We recognize them and skip over them so quickly that we don't always notice when there are two of of them.

Can you find all four doubles above? 

I only see three doubles. Sorry, I'm kinda slow. I guess the brain does it's thing automatically! I read over your sentences about 5 times and up till now I don't see 4 doubles. 

[sidney]

I also only found 3 doubles. Where is the 4th one? I've re-read the sentences many times already, but my count is still 3.

[True2marie]

Oh - wow. 

I had to read the subject line twice before I caught the second 'the'.  I have seen statements in the past that indicate the brain skips over or dismisses words depending on their arrangement, but I have never seen this one. 

Very interesting.

[ddrmario123]

Sorry about the misconception. When I said four above I meant to include the title one too  :speechless:.

[mareebaybay]

That is a great post, because I too did not even notice the doubles at my first glance. That is crazy what out minds do.

[Trellum]

Hahahahaha, I hadn't noticed this either   But to be honest I wasn't paying a lot attention, I just skipped the rest of the sentence.  I usually do that, then pay a lot more attention once I open the thread and I see is an interesting topic worth commenting   Otherwise I just go.

Very interesting thread, I think I read something about this a while ago.  They explained you actually see with your brain, and is very common to skip some words when you are in a hurry.

[Hedonologist]

I didn't notice any at first, and like others I can only find 3 when reading it again specifically looking for them. Two on the first line and 1 on the second, what are we missing here?

[rodserd]

The brain is extremely lazy.  This is why so many optical illusions work.  The brain tries to shortcut things, and ends up with interesting results.

[LauraM]

Wow, that is quite amazing.  I didn't see the double "the" in the title, and I must admit I also didn't catch the doubles in the explanation on first reading. I had to read it a couple of times -- slowly -- before I caught them.

This is what makes proofreading challenging at times because our brains are doing the mental corrections already for us, but yet, they are not there on the screen or the page, as the case may be. 

ddrmario123, thanks so much for sharing this.

[Wanderer]

That is a pretty neat trick. When I was a lot younger they used to give us sentences like that as quizzes.

Thanks for the memories.

[Baburra]

I know of this mind trick, and yes, it is pretty amazing, I agree. I think it has to do with our minds getting so used to seeing in groups as quickly as possible that it sometimes fails to see the details within. It's pretty neat, but a little frustrating when you realize that you've just tricked yourself.

[writeletters]

That's really interesting. I find myself doing that with words that are similar to, reading them incorrectly and going back to read them again.

[sidney]

Sorry about the misconception. When I said four above I meant to include the title one too  :speechless:.

I see, so that's why I wasn't able to see the 4th one. Until I read your post, the 2nd "the" in the title was really invisible to my eyes! The brain is really good at cloaking double and repetitive words, huh?  :grin: