demondeac Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 So what's the deal with all the postings on the results page for Soandso State Univeristy, or even Univerisity? Not surprisingly, if you search for "English Univeristy", you find a great many rejections, though (scarily) there are some acceptances. Perhaps they are creative writing majors? . If you're considering spending 5+ years in a school, shouldn't you be able to spell it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phonologist Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Those are clearly typos. Great thread though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riss287 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I'll play devil's advocate and say that maybe these people are posting just after receiving acceptances or rejections. I'd spell things wrong, too, if I was a. really excited, or b. really upset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miratrix Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Hey, I once spelled my own last name wrong on both pages of an SoP! (Caught before mailing, fortunately, because it was REALLY prominent.) And I DO know how to spell my last name, I just don't always succeed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tritonetelephone Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I'll play devil's advocate and say that maybe these people are posting just after receiving acceptances or rejections. I'd spell things wrong, too, if I was a. really excited, or b. really upset. That's exactly right. Plus, you don't get to preview your results submission before posting it. I've seen people double post because their first post had an error... that just makes it worse IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psycholinguist Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 My college once accidentally spelled it "Universtiy" on the SPINE OF THE YEARBOOK. They only noticed once a few physical books had already been printed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demondeac Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 I'll play devil's advocate and say that maybe these people are posting just after receiving acceptances or rejections. I'd spell things wrong, too, if I was a. really excited, or b. really upset. Okay, maybe. My one acceptance wasn't super exciting, so I guess it wasn't difficult to spell correctly. Still, I think if I had just received an acceptance to my highest "reach" school, I would sit there and relish in the moment before submitting... I also must say that I've been really careful with my spelling in this post, since it would be uber-embarrassing to be called out for a spelling error while calling others out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riss287 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Okay, maybe. My one acceptance wasn't super exciting, so I guess it wasn't difficult to spell correctly. Still, I think if I had just received an acceptance to my highest "reach" school, I would sit there and relish in the moment before submitting... I also must say that I've been really careful with my spelling in this post, since it would be uber-embarrassing to be called out for a spelling error while calling others out... It's really funny you should mention checking your spelling carefully in the post. I wanted to type "misspelling," but for the life of me I couldn't remember whether it had one "s" or two, so I decided to change my wording to avoid it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_ruth Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Doesn't the drop-down menu w/the name of the school pop up once you start typing? Perhaps it is spelled incorrectly on there if multiple people are making the mistake on the same University. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonights Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I hate to burst your bubble, but the "Univeristy" misspelling is often pre-filled in the "School" field of the drop-down menu. I posted the other day, selected my university from the menu and when I reviewed the post, was shocked to see "Univeristy." I didn't type it, it was already there. So, that's how and why that is happening so much. It's many people propagating one person's error, not many people making the same error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_ruth Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I hate to burst your bubble, but the "Univeristy" misspelling is often pre-filled in the "School" field of the drop-down menu. I posted the other day, selected my university from the menu and when I reviewed the post, was shocked to see "Univeristy." I didn't type it, it was already there. So, that's how and why that is happening so much. It's many people propagating one person's error, not many people making the same error. yes, that's what I said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonights Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 yes, that's what I said And we posted it at exactly the same minute, too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_ruth Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 ah, you are right. now I'm going to have to look back through the results search to see if any of my posts had Univertity or whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demondeac Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 Well that takes all the fun out of it... I guess it's another example of our brains humming along without actually paying attention (to something like spelling). Like the so-called "studies" that have shown people can read anything scrambled as long as the first and last letter of the word is in place, like: Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pcleas. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe. If you had trouble reading that, it's probably time to stop at the third or fourth single malt... :mrgreen: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psycholinguist Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Well that takes all the fun out of it... I guess it's another example of our brains humming along without actually paying attention (to something like spelling). Like the so-called "studies" that have shown people can read anything scrambled as long as the first and last letter of the word is in place, like: Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pcleas. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe. If you had trouble reading that, it's probably time to stop at the third or fourth single malt... :mrgreen: Just out of curiosity (since as my username suggests, I'm kind of into this sort of thing), does anyone know of any actual citations for the phenomenon? As demondeac says, it's quite apocryphal - I've also seen the 'study' attributed to Cambridge and Harvard - but I do think it's very interesting and would like to know if it's been scientifically investigated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phonologist Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Just out of curiosity (since as my username suggests, I'm kind of into this sort of thing), does anyone know of any actual citations for the phenomenon? As demondeac says, it's quite apocryphal - I've also seen the 'study' attributed to Cambridge and Harvard - but I do think it's very interesting and would like to know if it's been scientifically investigated! It seems to follow from the word superiority effect, where letters are more readily recognized when presented in a word (lexical item) than when presented alone or in a nonword. I don't think that the exact position of the letters matters (though there probably is a locality threshold for longer words), which might explain the effect at least partially. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psycholinguist Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 It seems to follow from the word superiority effect, where letters are more readily recognized when presented in a word (lexical item) than when presented alone or in a nonword. I don't think that the exact position of the letters matters (though there probably is a locality threshold for longer words), which might explain the effect at least partially. Fair enough. That's an interesting link to propose! (Though I might be a bit biased, of course. Heh.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohheygradschool Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I always find the University of Pennsilvania posts hilarious/annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demondeac Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 There was a blog post I read once which gave a great description of the phenomenon as nothing more than a magic trick; two and three letter words remain the same, four letter words only swap the inner two letters, and these make up the majority of the English language. From these it's easier to read the longer harder words since they give you context clues...neat trick though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgk Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 There are 190 such results in the database. I'll get around to correcting them at some point. Believe it or not I spend a bit of time each day, 'normalizing' the data. I should really re-write the submission system so it does it automatically, but there's only so much time in the day ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterpat Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I always find the University of Pennsilvania posts hilarious/annoying. Ha. That's practically Pencilvania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterpat Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 There are 190 such results in the database. I'll get around to correcting them at some point. Believe it or not I spend a bit of time each day, 'normalizing' the data. I should really re-write the submission system so it does it automatically, but there's only so much time in the day ! You should ban-for-life all the IPs of people who use the results page to have conversations. We have a forum for a reason. One must rule with an iron fist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riss287 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 You should ban-for-life all the IPs of people who use the results page to have conversations. We have a forum for a reason. One must rule with an iron fist. Ok, Machiavelli, calm down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizard Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Last year, while checking my online application status to a program, I noticed that a transcript showed up as received from a school I had never attended (in a state I had never even visited!) and better yet had "university" spelled wrong in its name. That was a double whammy. Just out of curiosity (since as my username suggests, I'm kind of into this sort of thing), does anyone know of any actual citations for the phenomenon? As demondeac says, it's quite apocryphal - I've also seen the 'study' attributed to Cambridge and Harvard - but I do think it's very interesting and would like to know if it's been scientifically investigated! I wandered onto a website discussing this fairly recently. It Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psycholinguist Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 I wandered onto a website discussing this fairly recently. It Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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