CURIOUS MIND: Ever had Problem Spelling/Recognising Very Simple Words?? It’s Called Wordnesia!!

Simple words can be the most difficult to spell, it doesn’t just look like it’s spelled right as we stare at it on a screen, in a book or in our minds. This is not a recurring condition, yet it is safe to conclude that most have got this experience at least once.

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Welcome to another episode of “Curious Mind”. Our curiosity today is why people forget the spelling of very simple words.

As usual I shall bid you to undergo a minute mental exercise. Sit back and meditate, the question is, ‘Why do I forget spelling of very simple words?’ Did you get any clues? Write them done. It is time to let the cat out of the bag. Enjoy the ride!!

My most recent experience with this ‘supposed aberration’ was few days ago. I was reading a material online, then I got distracted. In order to stay on track, I kept repeating the last word I read, which was ‘rule’. When I regained concentration, this eccentricity struck! The word ‘rule’ looked surreal. “Rule, rule, rule... is this how the word is correctly spelt?” The letters seems to dance in my face and I could not fit the spelling to the pronunciation or the meaning. By now, this phenomenon wasn’t an alien to me. So, I took a little rest to reset my brain, everything returned to normalcy and I was good to continue reading.

The above experience was less of a pain as it occurred while I was not pressured. What about if I was taking a test and I had to debate within myself the spelling of the word “is”?

This was the case early in my first year in university. I was with a friend in a cyber cafe filling out necessary registrations. Then Wordnesia struck! For the next 10minutes we would argue the correct spelling of the word “submit”. All attempts my friend made to get me to see it rightly were futile. He suggested we asked an average aged man using the next computer system to us. I refused, “What do you think he will think about us?” I asked. “He’d just conclude we are idiots that cheated our way into the university.” All thanks to Google, we got the correct spelling and even at that it still looked so weird. But who can argue with the most robust search engine in all universe?

Wordnesia is no respecter of cachet or age. In an article, elocutionist and rarefied writer, Matthew J.X. Malad, explained a similar experience with the word “project”. He took a further step to uncover the cause of his daunting experience (for a writer of his ilk). He learnt the condition was endemic and scientifically inexplicable. However, suggestions have been made by smart minds on causes of this condition.

Charles A. Weaver III, a professor of psychology and neuroscience explains;

When you’re reading, what you’ve got is a very practiced part of the brain that responds automatically. I mean, when is the last time you looked at colonel and realized it was spelled funny? The automatic parts of reading take over. My guess, in the phenomenon you’re talking about, is that, very briefly, the automatic parts hit a speed bump and go, ‘that can’t be right.’ And those automatic tasks, when you disrupt them at all—when you think, ‘am I breathing on my backswing,’ or when you think, ‘should I push the clutch with my left foot’—anytime that you engage conscious monitoring of those parts that ought to be automatic, you get a hiccup. 

This brings readily to mind of a story I read many years ago. A man with long beards was asked where he keeps his beards when in bed--outside or inside his duvet. He had never thought about such a question. Unable to provide an answer he impatiently waited for bedtime to find out. Instead of realisation, he had a sleepless night. His focus on which position was best for his beards made any assumed position a nightmare.

Every time we attempt figure out what how automated processes occur, Weaver says we get a hiccup. For writing and reading, such hiccup is referred to as WORDNESIA. I believe majority of my audience would have had this experience at least once. Many people in various parts of the world have taken to social media like twitter to discuss their experiences. Some of these will render you speechless. I found a twitter trend worth reading.

Have you had a similar experience? However bizarre, feel free to share in the comment section below. I also appreciate your upvotes.