The human brain is an amazing thing. I came across an article discouraging the use of all-caps for worship lyrics projection. (The entire post is at churchmotiongraphics.com if you're interested). The part that really struck me was this:
"The way we read quickly, typically at a rate of three to four words per second, is to comprehend words by their shape and not by their individual letters. A fitting example of this can be found in the following paragraph. Notice how even though the letters between the first and last letters of the word are mixed up, you can still swiftly read the sentences without much hesitation:
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch 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.
This is possible because the first and last letters of a word create a visual boundary that helps our brains recognize the word."
This is really great when it comes to reading (especially when reading something written by someone who may sometimes mix up letters), but I wonder if we do that in other areas of our life to our detriment. Sometimes we see something and immediately jump to a conclusion about what it represents because it reminds us of something else. It may be an event, an object... or even a person.
It often pays to take your time to see what is really in front of you instead of just what you think is there. It's usually better to make a good decision than a fast one.
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