Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-04-22
HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
By DIR. LEONARD KEENE HIRsHBERG
A. B., M. A., NJ. d. (John Hopkins(.

why Yen Read MisprInts and Never See
the Errors.
Poets hold that 1t Is well to trust to
the heart and to what are called illu-
sions. Science maintains, however,
that the words which express feelings
are merely 1otsam and jetsam, like
the tossing buoy which may conceal
either an anchorage or a shallow
channel.
Some blessed power delivers most
men from the accidents to which illu-
sions lead. The silliest of stuff con-
ceals the substance of things, and the
best ID but shadow Of the worst,
and the worst Is no worse than imagi-
nation can make 1t.
Anyone who has never experienced
fallacy OF eyesight is above the
state of mortal error. Illusions are
usually considered to be errors OF
vision or of the fleshy structures
which control sight. Professor Arthur
Pierce q short time ago proved that
"proofreaders' illusion"-that is, the
overlooking Of a misprinted word
and reading 1t as If 1t were correctly
printed-is not fallacy OF vision
at all.
Proofreaders illusion consists, to be
sure, In the want of correspondence
between what appears to be really
seen and what is actually on the
printed page If you run across the
word misprrnt you will be apt to
read II as mlsprint, and be unaware
of any difference.
Recognition" of Words.
Professor Pierce says that there
is no proof that you see cor
rectly printed word. True enough,
you read IL truly, but not by way
of vision. 1t Is a matter rather of
articulation, muscular and imaged,
in part auditory. AS you read rapidly,
only enough Of the misprinted word
need be and Is seen to call forth
the usually associated idea. A child
two years old often recognizes dis
tinctions between advertisements re-
peated always in the same conforma-
ton of characters without knowing
the letters. If few letters are
dropped from well-known and
familiar advertisements 1t makes no
difference In the recognition.
The parts of the word that are ac-
tually in the line OF vision may re-
ceive some help entirely visual In
these instances the whole illusion is
one of sight. This fact and the one
mentioned of my own child seem not
to support the view of DR.. Pierce It
is this possibility which has misled
psychologists into the conviction that
ali errors of the printed word are
visual ones.
Grapho-MotoF Illusions.
When a letter, syllable or small por-
ton Of a word Is seen 1t brings up a
quick association and arouses In the
mind some type of non-yisual ideas
which represent Immediately the cor
/ rect word.
| These mages--ideae-may be unex-
| pressed muscular movements of the
articuiar or auditory organs. That is
| to say, the word is either mentally
pronounced or mentally heard as II
should be. There are many other con.
ceivable illusions of words, seen un-
| consciously as fragments other than
| visual muscular movements Of the
] fingers in the mind, and not as acts
| Grapho-motor illusion so-called is but
| one Of these others.
1t is partly the existence Of nxed
word habits which furnish the pre-
vailing conditions for these illusions
One is driven by the momentum OF
past habits to take things for granted
and utter the word rather than an
other. The written word is often