I don't get it... Why do I forget to type some words when I'm writing, then not notice those words are missing when I proof read whatever I'm writing? Sometimes the missing words totally changes the meaning of what I was trying to say. Yeah, yeah... I know. I'm receding. But David said there was no pain and there is!
Actually, there’s a biological reason for this, our brains are wired not to spot our own typos, when we write, our brains try to convey meaning. This high-level function relies on a brain process called generalisation, an automatic, subconscious, and vital process that enables us to make quick decisions in our daily lives.
When we write, this generalisation process means that our brains pay more attention to the big picture, the message and meaning, and less attention to the small details, the words and letters. The same thing happens when we’re reading. Our brains take general information and match it to our expectations.
Im srue yvoue seen a snecntee werhe the ltetres are in the wnorg oderr hveoewr yuor mnid can siltl udstenarnd the mneaing, rgiht?
As long as the first and last letter are in the right place, our brain can interpret the meaning to understand the sentence because of generalisation. This clever process saves us time and brain power, reserving the slow, rational, conscious part of our mind for more important matters. However, it causes trouble when we try to proof read our own writing. When we read our own work back, we already know the meaning we’re intending to convey, so we have an expectation. Our brains fill in the missing information, correct the incorrect information, and give us the meaning we expect to see. This means we don’t spot our typos and errors because our brain has auto-corrected them out.
Knowing this, it’s easy to see why other people can instantly spot our errors. The other person is reading the content fresh for the first time, so they don’t have an intended meaning or expectation in their mind. This is why it’s always better to ask somebody else to proof read your work, whether it’s an experienced proof reader or a different set of eyes.
