In a recent post (As Debbie Harry would say: “Picture This”) I talked about the brain as an image processor. In this post I want to try and demonstrate this in the context of how we write and read.
Researchers have shown that when we read, the brain looks for patterns. No surprise there as this is what the brain is brilliant at. In this post I want to look at just 2 of these patterns. First and last letters and upper case vs lower case.
So firstly a question:
Which is easier to read, upper case or lower case?
Try reading this:
TIHS IS JSUT WRIED
While you may have been able to work this out I would bet you struggled (did you notice your eyes jumping about, trying to make sense of it?).
The answer to the question is lower case.
This is because, in order to be able to read upper case, we need to look at each letter in a word to know what the word is.
When we read lower case we are recognising the picture (or pattern) each word makes:
- “t”s rising up
- “g”s below the line
- “i”s are just “1″s with a dot on top
- “j”s are “i”s with a tail
In this example, the first and last letters have been kept in their right places but in uppercase we have to focus on each letter to understand the words, this is what causes your eyes to jump around.
Now try it again in lower case:
Tihs Is Jsut Wreid
In the picture above, we have kept the first and last letter patterns the same and added the extra lower case patterns.
Even when we disrupt language as much as this, the brain is still able to detect the patterns and make sense of the sentence. This was probably reflected in more stable, less jiggly, eye movements.
Research on how the brain processes patterns is still very much incomplete but there is no doubt that pattern detection and learning are linked ( see When the brain goes off piste ) and reading is very much about detecting patterns.
So, how do you write your flips and other support materials?
- Upper case or lower case?
- Which is more Brain Friendly?
And if people spell words wrongly from time to time, does it really matter so long as we can figure out the patterns and get the meaning?
pyramid/hole image by alpha_prashanth
words on sign picture adapted from image by Leo Reynolds
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4 Comments
Hi
I’ve been encouraging people for years to use lower case rather than upper case – In my writing workshops I usually draw the shapes for the word ‘dog’ and ‘DOG’, without the letters, to make the point about the shape of the word being important.
Spelling is an interesting one – people may well get the message and if they get the right message that is fine. However, what if the mis-spelling gives them the wrong word and possibly wrong meaning – or just makes it harder to process because they’ve got to stop to think about the correct spelling.
e.g.
She walked down the isle.
She walked down the aisle.
Is she going on a long walk or getting married?
and then of course there’s grammar as well…..
When people understand how to spell correctly and punctuate correctly there is less likelihood of misunderstanding – writing is a formalised communication.
Humans are great at creating meaning – are they always as good at creating the meaning that you intended? And who’s responsibility is it to make the meaning clear?
Stella Collins
http://www.stellarlearning.co.uk
Hi Stella,
I think you have made some extremely valid points here especially around who has the responsibility to ensure the meaning is clear.
And, it ties in with Jane Penson’s survey today on the TJ forum.
I’m looking forward to seeing what others have to say.
Ciao for now,
Paul
Love the article… sent the link to other trainer friends I know (including my wife, a schoolteacher for 30 years)
Although I use PowerPoints in my Microsoft classrooms, I use hand-made charts when I can and I use flip charts in my WeightWatchers sessions where I have the liberty to be very creative. This article helps to confirm that proper use of Upper/lowercase writing makes the flow and hence the learning smoother. When my course comments say how “easy” and “clear” the training was, it probably is a combination of the presentation, involvement of the learners and the clarity of the slide/chart deck with the use of proper spelling and Upper/lowercase printing.
I get the point about recognizing the word without individual letter reading and your point is very powerful and clear. But I stress that we only recognize the words because we saw them spelled correctly hundreds of times before. Speed readers recognize not just word patterns but whole sentence patterns so we see how powerful our brain can be.
I love the graphic with the example of mispelled words and I could still read the whole thing and get it. If you did try to read the whole thing without focusing on individual words, try it again as if reading your favorite novel.. it works!
Way to go…
-Howard
Hi Howard, glad you found us and thanks for spreading the word
I’m really interested in your comments about speed reading, it’s something I’ve thought about from time to time but never really looked into it and am interested in your comments that it is done through pattern recognition.
When Beth was much younger, before school age she was quite good at counting patterns in her ‘baby books’, she would look and say how many or hold up her hand to show the number of things illustrated. Then she went to school and was ‘taught’ to count, she stopped seeing the patterns and started focusing on the individual items…
I wonder if this pattern seeking is built in and we teach it out of ourselves?