Glad I stumbled across this thread, gave me something to think about on an otherwise dull and lazy Sunday afternoon

I'm not in any way qualified to give authoritative information on the subject, but I think some of the theories presented here are on the right track, although I have something else to add into the mix.

In reading through the thread, I was reminded of a case study that was presented some time ago during some basic psychology class I took in college. I'm trying to dig up a reference to the same on I saw, but not having much luck so far (I think it was actually a tape of some show off the Discovery channel or something -- would have come out around a decade ago at the earliest). The study involved a treatment for epilepsy patients who do not respond adequately to drug therapy to control seizures, that involved severing the Corpus Callosum, or the membrane connecting the two hemispheres of the brain ("Cerebral commissurotomy"? I could swear it had an easier-to-pronounce, one word name, but it was a long time ago).

In any case, after the surgery was performed, the patient followed in the study basically had to learn how to deal with the fact that the left and right hemispheres of their brain could no longer communicate. I remember one part where an examiner showed a card with a picture of a car on it, and asked that the patient both say what they saw, and write it down on a piece of paper.

The patient verbally responded with "Car", but when she showed the piece of paper (which she thought she had written "car" on), it said "duck" or something else completely unrelated. I might be misremembering some of the details there, but the gist of it was that in a typical human brain, going through that seemingly simple process requires some serious coordination between both hemispheres of the brain.

Getting back to my spin on this phenomenon, I would imagine it has something to do with the fact that we tend to type with both hands, and that somehow during the process, it is possible for the hemisphere of the brain controlling one of them to "short circuit," so to speak, and make our fingers spit out a homophone or some other closely related, but incorrect word, even though our conscious mind is completely aware of the distinction.

I'd be curious if the common mistakes that occur tend to happen with letters that are typically typed with one specific hand over another, and whether you're right or left-handed.

In the original example, we have "a view" vs "a few" -- if you're typing on a QWERTY keyboard in anything remotely resembling the "proper" way (I don't really adhere to the "proper" way as much as my high school typing teachers would have liked, having developed my own faster, hybrid style during childhood, and a nice case of CTS to boot, I might add) 'f', 'e', and 'w' are all left-hand letters, as is 'v'. The extra 'i' added to spell "view" is on the right side. Not sure if that's significant or not, especially considering the 'v' was undesired and that's left-side as well.

But my guess is still that it has something to do with the parts of the brain being used to process language expressed through typing are different in some significant way than those used in just pen/paper writing (in which, I'm guessing, most people are usually only using their dominant hand).

I also don't know about anyone else, but I can type WAY faster than I can write, and I always just sort of assumed it might have something to do with my fingers being able to work a little closer to the speed at which my brain is working and therefore introducing more errors, whereas if I was writing with a pen and paper, by the time I got around to actually writing down the letters I wanted, I would have had time to mentally correct any incorrect homophonic words I may have subconsciously been thinking about typing.

Two posters now have suggested the problem has something to do with
coordination between the two sides of the brain and between the left and
right hands. I have the same problem, and I type with one hand. It is
fairly rare for me to type with my left hand except for the shift, control,
and alt keys.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

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Well, that theory might be out the window then Don't suppose there are any others out there who tend to type with only one hand but are lefties, are there? Seem to remember seeing something while I was looking at that other info about the right side of the brain being primarily responsible for a lot of the functions of linguistic processing (which I might have misread, and would, I imagine, be a gross oversimplification of the process anyhow). But it'd be interesting to note if the problem is more or less prevalent in left or right handed typists, and how many on each side type with both hands. Something I don't imagine we'll be able to determine with any degree of scientific accuracy whatsoever in this thread, but it'd be an interesting experiment.

Actually, after I wrote that last post I kept poking around in various sources as I was curious if it could somehow be related to a certain type of problem I tend to have with speech.

Wouldn't go so far as to say it's a serious problem or disorder, but basically when I'm actually communicating verbally, I can occasionally have a really hard time getting the words that I know I want to say to come out... almost like as soon as I think about saying it, something shuts off and I completely forget the word or point I was trying to make... kinda feels like my brain is 4-5 steps ahead of my mouth and they just get out of sync.

The interesting thing is, it's exactly the opposite while I'm typing/writing, when I can almost write a novel without breaking a sweat, and can simultaneously be thinking about 2-3 other topics in my head.

Any other folks who notice the "typing problem" have anything similar? And/or do any of you have ADHD, specifically the "ADHD-I (Inactivity)" variety with "Sluggish Cognitive Tempo" (SCT) symptoms?

I just came across that SCT bit while I was looking at other stuff, and while I absolutely hate the name, as I don't think it accurately portrays what I feel like, I'd have to say a lot of the symptoms line right up with me, and it seems somewhat logical to conclude that the mechanism behind the phenomenon being discussed in this thread may be linked to whatever it is that leads to SCT-like symptoms, which, according to that wikipedia article, in any case, is some sort of impairment of working memory function.

I make the sorts of typing mistakes we're talking about fairly frequently, and had never really thought anything of it until I came across this thread.

Then again, it could be something as simple as there being a higher likelihood of hitting certain incorrect keys while typing certain letter/word combinations in a sentence due to the way human fingers and computer keyboards are designed . Certainly wouldn't put it past myself to completely overanalyze the entire topic unnecessarily!

Anyway, not that I'm helping by just having written this big long post, but since the OP was specifically interested in a name, I think you were close with "aphasia," more accurately it might be an example of paraphasia, perhaps more specifically phonemic paraphasia (which was parenthetically described as "phone substitution errors" in the wikipedia article on Conduction aphasia).

Alright, I'll shut up now... stupid ADHD/SCT/Wikipedia/whatever causing a very notable manifestation of some of the symptoms I noted above

I suspect it is both the fact that it is a slower process and that you know you are more or less committed once you set pen to paper, so more forethought is involved. Back in the typewriter days, I deliberately typed slower because I knew that correction was much more difficult - I might either have to retype an entire page, or use correction tape or mark out small changes.

Regarding my own experience, I've mentioned on other threads occasionally that I tend to think of there being different processes (or agents) involved in my writing. I picture a speech writer dictating to a typist, with a proofreader checking things out afterwards. The typist occasionally transcribes words incorrectly, and as I've noted before, the typist and proofreader have slightly different vocabularies. Occasionally a "their" will slip through instead of a "there" if I don't proofread, and there are a few words I tend to misspell, but usually catch on proofreading. It doesn't happen all the time, but enough that I notice the differences.

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when i do it, it's just a combination cranial methane emission and fat fingers.

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The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

I do that a lot, I mean "ratio" for "ration". The reason (for me) is that I type a lot, and there are lots of words where "io" is followed by an "n", like nation, imagination, station, etc. So my fingers are used to typing an "n" after the "io".

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As above, so below

Bolt mine:

I don't think this (see bolted part) is the problem. I guess it is more going into the direction you have mentioned before. The patterns. Thinking about it, in my job I very have to do with technical drawings. These contain words like Top view, or Side view quite regulary. So I guess it is the pattern thing.
It seems that the part of the brain responsible for the finger motion reacts to the "sound" and uses the pattern which is neede more often.

Anyway, it is very interesting to see that more people seem to have similar problems. Especially native speakers obviously also know it.

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Andre

"They did not know it was impossible, so they did it!"
Mark Twain

Technical drawings? ... hmm ... maybe, Andre ...
and the terms you would tend to use with them ...

like bolt and bolted (for bold and bolded), for instance?

yes, quite a few native speakers do exhibit similar tendencies, and not only in text - also in speech ...

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Ooops.......

The key could really be how often we are exposed/do use certain words.

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Andre

"They did not know it was impossible, so they did it!"
Mark Twain

I'm similar to fazor and Jens

I nearly always type 'their' as 'theire' and I think it is because I type a lot of words like where, here, there etc and my fingers automatically add an 'e' to the end when I hear it in my head (I talk in my head while typing).
I know I do it and it annoys me as I know how to spell 'their' but it's only when I read it through afterwards that I see it - not when I type it; unlike a mistype.

I think typing is largely automatic like playing a musical instrument or a Playstation, a comedian called Les Dawson used to play a piano deliberately wrong which apparently is quite hard when you are a pianist.

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Life is its own god.

Can you please ask the voices in your head to keep the noise down?

Hi all!
Okay, here's my take on this, based on my own personal experience.

From the age of seven, I took private piano lessons for eleven years. When practicing a complicated piece of music (think Bach Inventions), I would notice that in some parts my fingers would absolutely fly, flawlessly executing difficult passages without much conscious thought on my part. It wasn't memorization, because I was actively reading the music score. It was a burst of musical clarity that I still strive for.

Later, when I was in the USMC, I became a typist. I became very proficient with the IBM Selectric. I had gotten to the point where I would read an entire phrase, and my fingers would seem to work on their own. Again, with no real conscious thought on my part.

I keep saying that my fingers were doing the "translating" work, but I'd have to place the entire fault upon Pattern Recognition. I'd say that certain patterns become "hard-coded" in the brain. Sometimes these patterns are activated before you have a chance to recall the command.

Just my take on it, is all.

I'm gonna have to look up this "Les Dawson" fellow.

I'm a touch typist - thirty-odd years in some form of writing for a living did that to me ... and I do think that we tend to write/type/speak with a kind of cruise control mode ... with the driver, the conscious mind, already looking ahead for the next bit ...

I have odd memories of my early times on keyboards (pre electric typewriters), consciously spelling out each word ... now I only have to think the word, or even the phrase, and let fingers do the rest (I still have to watch the screen to pick up wrong keys ... corrected a few whilst doing this post) ...

but that's not the same as substituting the wrong word or phrase ... when that's happened to me, I don't see it - I still see the word or phrase I intended to place there during revisions ... it's only after someone else points out the error that I can see what I actually typed (or wrote/said) ... and then I am shocked! How could I have possibly missed that?

so, not only does the automatic controller make mistakes, it covers them up ...

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Generally speaking, people can't proofread their own writing. Because they know what they meant to write.

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As above, so below

Maybe this is similar, but I've noticed something interesting. I can do an imitation (I don't know how good it is) or somebody speaking Chinese or Russian or German. But I can't do an imitation of somebody speaking Japanese or French or Spanish. Because I speak those languages, and for some reason I can't do an imitation of them without it becoming the real thing. It's kind of hard to describe.

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As above, so below

Quoted for truth!!

Even when proof reading someone else's text it can happen that you read what you expect to be there, not what really is written there.

Some years ago we had a text circulating here in Germany which was full of typing errors (letters exchanged, missing letters, letters replaced by completely different ones). Almost no correct word in it.

The text was still absolutely readable if one did not concentrate on the single words, but kept reading as you usually do.

So obviously the brain likes patterns it knows already.

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Andre

"They did not know it was impossible, so they did it!"
Mark Twain

Yes! That's exactly the point I was trying to make. Certian letter combinations form patterns that we may or may not notice. Like my "Actual/Actually" problem... many times the combination of "t-u-a-l" will be followed with "l-y". So even though I type "actual", repetative motion membory will say "ooh! I know 'ly' comes next" and I don't even notice it.

And I'll quote KLIK on this just because he had the analogy first, and I think it's a perfect one.

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Definitely happens in music, with any instrument. It's because music is not just notes (like letters), but also words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs (sort of, anyway). Once you learn a musical pattern, it's easy to read it at sight and play it, with very little thought and certainly not by considering each note separately. As a band director I had once said of the phenomenon, "instead of reading notes, you read music". For the same reason, a musician can sometimes memorize music without too much difficulty, but give the musician a random list of notes and he would have a lot of trouble memorizing even a small part of it.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

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I think reading style varies considerably. I can't help noting misspelling when I read, and it slows my reading considerably. If there iz riting lik ths, I can make it out if I work at it, but it isn't the way I usually read.

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If their iz riting liek dis I get irresistible urges to find the author of said drivel and beat him to death with a dictionary.

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Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

Maybe this one

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*

Since we both talked liek dat, at least as examples, I see a bit of a problem. I think I will just back away very slowly.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Can you translate this into English?

James Clerk Maxwll wiki page

Yes--that would be the one!

Todd

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info