How do YOU read words that you have seen before?

Do you first see separate glyphs, then sound each one out, and then understand it?

Do you first see separate glyphs, then remember what they mean together?

Do you first see a word as a whole lexical unit, conveying 1 sound and 1 meaning to you?

I read the 3rd way. Words are words. Almost as soon as I see a word (I can't measure the time, it's probably a couple of milliseconds), I know what it means and what it sounds like.

So, if somebody holds up a sign and tells me I can look at it, but I can't read it, I will not look at it, because if I do, I will instantly have read it, I can't help it. I look at a word, and it means something.

To me, written words are like speech, I guess is a better way to say it. I understand them the same way.

This is why Chinese people can read Chinese faster than many native English speakers can read English. Chinese speakers do not sound words out if they know them. As soon as they see it, they know a meaning and a sound.

It depends on what leverl you are talking about GB. Someone might answer that they see a word as a whole lexical unit, conveying 1 sound and 1 meaning yet on a very deep level they might be breaking the word down into each syllabal (god knows how you spell it). The brain can act very quickly and so the individual moight not even be aware that this is happening. Also, they may recognise the word instantly and know the meaning etc but at some point they will have broken the word down into individual letters and probably (?) syllabals. I answered the last one myself because thats the first thing that i am aware of that enters my head but when i question this i know that i actually break it down (or have done at some point and it is at this point that i 'accepted' the word and its meaning) into syllabals and letters.

I never thought about this till now. I assumed all written material when scanned by the eye was immediately transposed by the brain. A nanosecond process. When I read a book, I don't even see letters or words. The written event is like a movie to me. Am I missing something?

I just dont think ur going deep enough fox2wolf.your not 'thinking about thinking'. Im not having a go at you fox2wolf but technically this is known (this is how I see it anyway) as not being honest with yourself. if your not going deep enough and assessing your thoughts then your cant be being completely honest with yourself can u?

It's ok, you can have a go at me..lol. I was just commenting on how I read or actually how I do not "analyze" each and every letter or syllable. I don't see the connection of being honest with myself to the act of reading. Reading for me is like going to sleep..you're not actually aware of each step in the process. It just happens..with sounds, colors and popcorn.

When I see a word, I just absorb it in, unconsciously.

However, when I stare at a word for a long time, it starts to make no sense to me, whatsoever (or when I read the same word over and over again). I then realize that these little markings on a page/screen are just little markings. They hold no meaning by themselves, but collectively they do miraculous things.

I once alienated myself by staring at a paragraph of words until they meant nothing to me, like Japanese or Chinese would. I even forgot how to write the letter 'X' once! :D The entire day, I could not remember how it looked, as if without using it I would forget forever. Freaky. :eek:

Uh... I forgot my glasses today. Can you read this for me?

Mainly #3...

As dumb as it may sound, I don't "stop" at words unless I haven't
seen them before: I simply "know" what they mean and I will then
piece everything together to understand the sentence as a whole.

It's very intuitive... ;)

Originally posted by fox2wolf
Reading for me is like going to sleep..you're not actually aware of each step in the process. It just happens..with sounds, colors and popcorn.

That happens when I'm very engrossed in a book. The words slip off the page, the world around me fades, and suddenly I'm in a fantasy world. Seriously. And then somebody says something to me, and I get really upset, but then I get back in and the next thing I know I'm finished with the last page.

I don't know how to explain this, but it really does happen to me. Most notable times were when I was reading the Harry Potter books, I'd be in that state for hours at a time with no interruptions.

But there have been plenty of other books that that's happened with.

And no, it never happens on Sciforums, because it isn't a fiction book. ;)

I should also note that I can read Japanese very quickly too, and in the same way. Except since I don't have a very large vocabulary and I don't know very many kanji (perhaps a couple hundred?), sometimes I have to stop.

But I think this is in part because in Japanese, when you're using katakana or hiragana, each syllable corresponds with one glyph, and vice-versa. (with the exception of chiisai-tsu, chiisai-ya, chiisai-yu, chiisai-yo, and with the occasional chiisai-i to write words such as paatii (pa-texi-))

So I guess it's sort of interesting that I can read something quickly without knowing what it means.

Oh, and I can quickly learn kanji if they are words I already know and are accompanied by furigana the first few times they appear. Very fun!

I sound em out, stop and grab the dictionary and look the word up. Then reread the sentence.

Sure takes forever to read a book:D

I dont know if anyone else has relized this or not but in respose to:


To me, written words are like speech, I guess is a better way to say it. I understand them the same way.

I aggree. So, when your talking to someone, you can sound like an intellgient, articulate person. But when it comes down to writing you must have verbs, nouns, ect in every sentence. This is something that really irritates me. I love to talk and articulate what I am talking about. But when I have to write an essay or something I usally find myself writting in a "blah, blah, blah" way. Because If I do try to write creatively, so things flow beautifully and naturally, I end up writting down things Im saying to myself in my head which is synonmous with speech thus "gramatically, structurally, ect ect ect., incorrect. And sometimes I really feel :mad: because of getting points off for trying to present myself in an interesting way instead of the usuall, boring crap.

:o :o :o (sigh)

So Here is a small excerpt (screw it, heres the whole thing if you are to read it and the picture-attachment at the bottom of post) from something I had to write for school. Bascially I had to make a "quilt square" with pictures, ect. representing who I am. Well I selected one picture and had to explain myself in great detail. I wrote in a very creative, loose tone as if talking very descriptively and intelligently. Though I believe I will get a good grade, I get dissapointed when my teacher marks all this stuff (I asked her opinion) when all the things she marks are meant to be the way they are. But without further adue:


"The picture selected to represent me is a beautiful work of art made by a true artist: Nature. Many similarities can be drawn between this artwork and myself. Although hard to see, its apparent simplicity is a similarity. Color and symmetry are two easier characteristics of both the painting and me. It also represents my beliefs, my passion, and my hopes and dreams for the future. Though others may interpret what it means differently, I know that it truly represents me.
Simplicity: A characteristic, which we all have at some level. It is, at first glance, a simple picture: a ring and a few dots with some color and blackness. Yet at closer inspection one reveals that although simple, it is also complex at a whole other level. A simple circle soon reveals complex clouds of gas strewn through interstellar space in an elegant way. A small neutron star, centered in the ring, which is all that is left spinning silently until one day it will fade away into the blackness from which it came. It is no longer a simple picture, it is a vast store of knowledge and beauty if one would only take a closer look. And you cannot help but see the rainbow of colors slowly changing from blue all the way to red as it moves outward: a color scheme that could only represent richness for life. It is not just a black and white photograph. It is a deeply colorful and beautifully rich photograph. And last but not least, an unparalleled symmetry that is unbelievable when one considers the events that created it. After all, the past is what made me who I am today.

The elegant ring as a whole also represents something extraordinary. The belief that there is a beginning and an end or possibly just a continuum of everything that ever was, or is, or ever will be. I know what created this picture: Nature. For some, Nature is a god, or many gods that created the beginning and will foresee the end. For myself, however, it brings me comfort to leave it general: not a god, nor gods but simply “the creative power of the universe/multiverse”. I could not think of a god who created this unimaginably vast, beautiful space for a few simple beings on a small rock, in the far edges of a desolate collection of stars, in a dark, remote corner of an ever expanding universe. I could not think of a god that created this beautiful picture with its awe and grandeur for a such a simple being as myself.

And we are not done yet. Let this brilliant photograph show a passion that I have and will always share: A passion known to hundreds of thousands of people who just looked up and gazed with awe and is unfortunately unknown to most today. Astronomy is a wonderful thing. It is a wonderful thing that would lead to some of the greatest inventions and cultural advances of all time: those very same advances that led us to see what has been painted on the canvas of the universe and led to this very paragraph.

Lastly, and most importantly this represents my future. “How?” you ask. In my truest dreams, it represents the peak of what I hope to achieve. When future generations look back in time as this photograph looks back in time, they will not see a simple star. They will see a star that has ended its life in the most brilliant way: a star that has contributed so much beauty, knowledge and meaning to future generations. It will never truly be lost and will continue on forever, bestowing its knowledge upon any curious viewers along its path. It was brilliant then, it is brilliant now, and it will be brilliant forever.
So “How” you ask, “does this picture represent me?” I suppose it truly is in the eye of the beholder."

Later
T:eek: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
(That intro paragraph I never fixed (I did but never saved it) Igonore it. It sucks.))) Later, again.

#3

You can READ without TALKIN'? That's effed-up!

A lot of people I know NEED to say the words out loud in order to
make sense of what they are reading, which I find rather disturbing...

Does anyone have an explanation for this ? I got used to reading
without having to utter a word when I was little and read in bed;
parents suck ass sometimes ;)

EDIT: I read past bedtime but I didn't want them to know and
piss me off about it :p

hmmmm p ete
It's ok, you can have a go at me..lol. I was just commenting on how I read or actually how I do not "analyze" each and every letter or syllable. I don't see the connection of being honest with myself to the act of reading. Reading for me is like going to sleep..you're not actually aware of each step in the process. It just happens..with sounds, colors and popcorn.

Maybe now u do but at some time you would have broken the word down into syllabals and before that, into letters. Now u dont think about it but at some time (the first time you saw/learnt a word you would have done.) Maybe we still do!?

i see a word, and *poof* a picture with a feeling pops into my head.. i don't read out loud, don't have to say the words in my mind, just move my eyes over a page. i don't even notice that i see the words.. it just happens. like a projector converts a piece of film into images on a screen..

i don't really remember how it was when i was learning how to read though.

With short words I see the whole combination of letters. With longer words, I see whole combinations of the the letters in their components.

Although I won't assert the number of letters, I would point toward the notion circulating in the 80s that people receive information in sevens; e.g. It used to be said that phone numbers were seven digits long because it was a compromise between providing enough numbers and making them easy to remember.

Thus, we might use seven as an arbitrary assertion, whereby I could recognize up to seven letters as a block. Thus, "was", "when", "where", "whines", or "whether" are all words I would recognize as a block of letters. (3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 letters). "Wherefore", for instance, would be split into its components, "where" (5) and "fore" (4).

Depending on cultural consistency, I can read whole sentences as data blocks, but this method is unreliable and frequently leads to erroneous interpretations. I might assert, then, that I can recognize a "write-bite" (written "sound bite?") from a mile away. But it's still an unsound presumption that I would know what it says at first glance.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

i just test-read a bit, and no, there's no sound of the word itself involved. just a representation of what that word means for me..

weird!

This thread reminds me of an aunt who took to serious reading after her husband died, and became a truly impressive speed reader. She could read a full page of text in a novel to probably a 95% comprehension level in literally two or three seconds. She said the sensation was like watching a movie in fast forward, but somehow understanding the whole thing at once. Depending on the size of the book, she didn't have to move her eyes left and right either; her eyes just went straight down the page.

Anyway, my mother is a cross-stitcher, and had stitched some enormous, three or four page poem (in a five-foot tall frame) for her as a gift for Christmas. It would have taken most people five minutes to read the whole thing.

She pulled the paper off, held the poem at arm's length, and burst into tears no more than a second later. It was hilarious.

- Warren

:D

ROFL.

That's it, I'm learning to speed read.

Originally posted by fox2wolf
I never thought about this till now. I assumed all written When I read a book, I don't even see letters or words.
:)

That's it, unless there is samo very strange (difficult) word.;)

It varies with me, according to my mood.