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


ddrmario123

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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?  :laugh:

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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?  :laugh:

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.  :wink:

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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.

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Hahahahaha, I hadn't noticed this either :P  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.

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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. :)

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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. :D

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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:

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