rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy

[M Chuk]

Yes, interesting stuff.
URL references - including the ones you sent in, Kerin, can be found at
http://science.slashdot.org/science/03/09/15/2227256.shtml?tid=133&tid=134&tid=186

As well as background sketches from Nature, among others, on language
perception :
http://www.nature.com/nsu/990429/990429-2.html

I remember cognitive tasks on language performance vis-à-vis speech
perception and language recognition from way-back-when I was studying
psycholinguistics. That is, the highly developed aptitude, among
native language users, for language anticipation and recognition from
garbled or partially concealed texts as well as through voice
reproduction e.g. telephone, radio, &c.  I think (but am not certain)
the retrieval rate was successful for up to 60% of missing language
information.  And,conversely, the amount that could be misunderstood
by native users, depending on the cognitive interference when
semantic processing was disrupted or attention was divided by
competing incoming data. The classic example is Cherry's 1953 (?)
'cocktail party' tests. I learned this as 'les expériences de la
filature' but the English term, I believe, is language  'shadowing'.

What was interesting, as well, is that someone has come up with a
Perl script to convert normal text into garbled text as seen in that
paragraph where all but the firts and last letters are scrambled.
Which leads one to think that the reverse might be useful for certain
language dysfunctions - were they to function that way.  But as one
whose language performance reveals increasingly dysfunctional, if not
dyslexic behaviour, this is not the case (for me, at least) and I
must sort out meanings and work out corrections word by word by word.

Coincidentally, I also received a snippet forwarded from someone on
the Humanist list that wondered aloud
'... if QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards produce typos of different import
and if touch typists are prone to making different keyboard
infelicities than two finger typists. Multilingual writers? Any
research? '

Touching, as well, on language performance and semantic interference
and the privileging of data ; in this instance, processing
information while juggling imput and automatic behaviour with the
improvisation each second demands.

The snippet continued with references to automatic text generation,
if anyone is interested. I've yet to suss it all out. :
' automatic funging on MOOs of which note Katherine Parrish's work MOOLIPO
http://www.meadow4.com/moolipo/

'To truly experience subjectivity constituted by language, and to
examine the algorithms that govern that language, one must examine
one's own algorithms.' The next stage of the MOOlipo project is
develop a feature that will allow the user to code MOOlipian
algorithms on to the verbs that make up their character.
[...]
The operation I performed on my character feels akin to the carnal
art of Orlan or Stelarc. Having spent the greater part of this year
working and researching while inhabiting the skin of my online
character, it feels dangerous to muck with her in this way.
[...]
"The machine is us, our processes, an act of our embodiment."
-Donna Haraway '

and her paper on automatic poetry generation
http://www.meadow4.com/cybertext/autopres.html '

cheers,
m.
---

Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 15:22:10 -0400
From: "P. Kerim Friedman" <kerim.list at oxus.net>

For those of you who've received this e-mail passing around the web:

"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't
mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt
tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset
can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs
is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a
wlohe."

And wanted to know more, there are some interesting blog posts about
"visual word recognition" that are worth reading, and full of useful
links:

http://www.bisso.com/ujg_archives/000224.html
http://www.bisso.com/ujg_archives/000227.html
http://www.languagehat.com/archives/000840.php
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