Eagle Eyes

Question

I'm blessed (or is it cursed?) with a talent for spotting misspellings in printed texts. It includes correctly-spelled words used inappropriately (you're/your/yore, pour/pore etc.)

The errors just seem to leap out at me from the surrounding text without any effort or concentration on my part, and it happens even when I'm not paying particularly close attention to what I'm reading.

Which leads me to wonder if a lot of aue posters have the same eagle eyes. If so, does it seem like a natural ability to you? (It does to me). Is it something in our brains? Something in the way we read, perceive and process visual information? Or is it a learned behaviour?

Is there a name for this?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I'm blessed (or is it cursed?) with a talent for spotting misspellings in printed texts. It includes correctly-spelled words used ... in our brains? Something in the way we read, perceive and process visual information? Or is it a learned behaviour?[/nq]
I think I do, but I have been around print a lot. I did a lot of printing with lead type in my teenage years, and I'm a programmer by trade, from the time when the turnaround on a compiler run was 24 hours, so you had to get it right or waste days.
[nq:1]Is there a name for this?[/nq]
Sub-editor.

David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
==
The address is valid today, but I change it periodically.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I'm blessed (or is it cursed?) with a talent for spotting misspellings in printed texts. It includes correctly-spelled words used ... way we read, perceive and process visual information? Or is it a learned behaviour? Is there a name for this?[/nq]
Gosh, I don't know, but I have encountered tests that address just that sort of thing perception of differences. Sometimes it is variations in text, at other times it may be slight differences in a picture.

I think it may have been in tests that, among other things, were supposed to measure IQ. I have also had to follow a line through a jumble of other lines to identify which of several lines exiting the jumble was the original one. I have always been very good at things like that. Too good to be selected for a management position at Lockheed, apparently, as I had one of the highest scores they had ever seen in a test called The Management Selection Test, but I didn't enjoy any benefits therefrom, not that I really wanted to.
Oh, yeah misspellings usually jump out at me and completely disrupt the flow of my reading. That's a nuisance, really.

Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/ I speak English well I learn it from a book!
Manuel (Fawlty Towers)

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In article
[nq:1]Which leads me to wonder if a lot of aue posters have the same eagle eyes. If so, does it ... in our brains? Something in the way we read, perceive and process visual information? Or is it a learned behaviour?[/nq]
It may be a combination of all of the above. Any proofreader of mediocre IQ develops an eagle eye. If you don't proofread for a living, then your eagle eye may be more of a natural ability.
[nq:1]Is there a name for this?[/nq]
I believe it has something to do with the memory, the visual memory of a printed page. Eidemic memory?

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In article

, MC

Eidetic, I think:
eidetic (ì-dèt?îk) adjective
Of, relating to, or marked by extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall of visual images.
(German eidetisch, from Greek eidos, form.)
- eidet?ically adverb
The American Heritage Dictionary

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...
[nq:2]Which leads me to wonder if a lot of aue posters have the same eagle eyes.[/nq]
[nq:1]I think I do, but I have been around print a lot. I did a lot of printing with lead type in my teenage years,[/nq]
Yes!! In Los Angeles public school, in the seventh grade, I had the privilege of taking both Latin (can you believe it?) and graphic arts. Unlike the graphic arts of today, I set my own business cards in lead type and printed them on a platen press. Man, was I hooked! From the stories in the news, our schools have fallen a long, long way.
[nq:1]and I'm a programmer by trade,[/nq]
Me too, or have been. Macintosh only. Here is where the question of a blessing or curse is raised for me: I had to give it up, because I am just too ****-retentive about my programming. Every single possible facet of my programs must be perfect every semi-colon, every character of every name of every variable... It's fun, but impossible as a money maker.
My first job turned out to be an 'eagle-eye' job: making screens for silk-screening t-shirts. I applied and interviewed, very much like any other job interview. There came the usual final wrap-up question from my interviewer: "Well, ok, so, ah... Anything else you'd like to ask.. or tell me?" I said yes, and pointed to the filing cabinet behind him: "You misspelled 'personnel'".

He wrote down "has an eye for detail", exactly what is needed in making screens, and passed it on to the screen manager. Oy, what a job.
I've been pursuing a proofreading job at some of the local tiny newspapers in Los Angeles. So far, I am in the good graces of a lady at one paper, but she had just hired someone fresh out of college. And after all I have no background in journalism, just a good eye, which is difficult to put on a resume convincingly.

Anyway yes, I think it can be part of one's character. A minor in ****-retentiveness and residing in myopia are probably beneficial to eagle-eye development. I don't always catch my own typos, though.
Eden

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I'm blessed (or is it cursed?) with a talent for spotting misspellings in printed texts. It includes correctly-spelled words used ... way we read, perceive and process visual information? Or is it a learned behaviour? Is there a name for this?[/nq]
Yes. Proofreading.

Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

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In article
[nq:1]Anyway yes, I think it can be part of one's character. A minor in ****-retentiveness and residing in myopia are probably beneficial to eagle-eye development.[/nq]
I think it may have to do with seeing words as patterns and noticing when the pattern is out of whack.
I don't always spot what precisely is out of whack, but something signals that things are not as they should be an extra letter, a missing letter, the wrong letter and a second glance reveals the culprit.
[nq:1]I don't always catch my own typos, though.[/nq]
I do. I'm inphalible!
... in truth, I know what you mean.
Funny how that works.

Usenet · Answer

...
[nq:2]I think I do, but I have been around print a lot. I did a lot of printing with lead type in my teenage years,[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes!! In Los Angeles public school, in the seventh grade, I had the privilege of taking both Latin (can you ... platen press. Man, was I hooked! From the stories in the news, our schools have fallen a long, long way.[/nq]
My school had a full printing shop, staffed entirely by pupils, which turned out all the school's printing needs short of the annual magazine. Posters, concert programmes, tickets, business cards, sports day programmes (this was very fiendish, being in 6pt to get all the name in). We had two small hand presses, one medium sized electric press and a great big monster called a Franklin Cropper which had a 3-phase supply, a 4-foot diameter flywheel and could have taken your arm off. This was in the early 1970s - children would not now be allowed to play with such dangerous toys.
It was a grammar school so we all took Latin.

David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
==
The address is valid today, but I change it periodically.

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In message

, Skitt (Email Removed) writes
snip
[nq:1]Oh, yeah misspellings usually jump out at me and completely disrupt the flow of my reading. That's a nuisance, really.[/nq]
I know that feeling, it's like rolling along in your car and somebody else jams the brakes on.
'Wha? wha?
Mike

M.J.Powell

Usenet · Answer

In article
[nq:2]Oh, yeah misspellings usually jump out at me and completely disrupt the flow of my reading. That's a nuisance, really.[/nq]
[nq:1]I know that feeling, it's like rolling along in your car and somebody else jams the brakes on.[/nq]
Excellent description.

Eagle Eyes

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