高清福利片

Have you ever wondered how our brain processes large pieces of information such as the text on this page? Kim Ransley鈥檚 PhD research, in the area of visual perception and cognition, aims to increase our understanding of the mechanics of reading. 聽

Our brain cannot process all of the information contained within a paragraph of text, as there are too many fine details. Kim鈥檚 current focus on visual attention and reading looks at the parts of text that are important for our understanding, and more specifically, how our brain takes information received by the retina and processes that data so that we are able to see and read. 聽

鈥淭he brain is not very sensitive to transposed letters, and so there are experiments you can do where you can flip around the two middle letters within a word and people just read it as they think it ought to be,鈥� says Kim.聽

Another demonstration of the 鈥渢ricky things that the brain is doing to help you understand written text鈥�, involves writing the letters 鈥楤XXT鈥� on a piece of paper and sticking it to a wall. On slow approach from 10 metres away, Kim explains that at some point, 鈥測ou鈥檒l think it says boat. Your brain doesn鈥檛 read 鈥榅X鈥�, instead it will replace it with the letters that it thinks are there.鈥�

Kim has been comparing the differences in the way human brains process information from English texts, which read from left to right, and Arabic texts, which read from right to left. Kim wants to understand if the direction of information processing is limited to text written in a certain language or if a person鈥檚 first language dominates the direction in which their brain processes information.

As part of 鈥樎爋n Friday 19 August,聽Kim will be demonstrating the effects of wearing and then removing 鈥榩rism goggles鈥�, which alter our field of vision and hence our perception of the world.聽

罢丑别听 runs from 11 to 21 August. There are over 100 events bringing science to life across the city 鈥� there鈥檚 something for everyone!聽