I found this interesting article on slashdot.org.
The crux of it is that people does not read by word shape, but by parallel character recognition which leads to recognition of the entire word. It’s not an easy read, but quite interesting.
It’s strange how memes like this can persist – apparently this has been know among reading psychologists for twenty years, but most people still think that we read by recognizing word shapes.
I’m currently reading The Knight Templar by Jan Guillou (I’m reading the danish version called “Tempelridderen”). I’m about one third through and it’s looking good.
It takes place in the 11th hundred AD, during the crusades. Swedish Knight Templar Arn has joined to the crusades a part of a punishment, because he got a little to “heavy” with his girl friend before they got married. She had gotten sentenced to 20 years in a nunnery and he has vowed not to return before the 20 years has passed. Looking good…