The Repeated Word Illusion

I distinctly remember the first time I saw the “I love Paris in the the springtime” illusion. It definitely got me. My mind happily skipped past a 'the' without a second's notice. Why do our brains do that? Why do so many people fall for this “I love Paris in the springtime” illusion?

This little illusion is a fun and memorable example from psychology that illustrates how our minds use shortcuts when reading. There are a few factors at work that let us completely miss repeated words—even when they’re right in front of us.

Our minds love taking shortcuts

Thinking is expensive—it takes energy. So when our brain sees something familiar, it often skips ahead to save effort. We rely on mental shortcuts (heuristics) to help us move faster and more efficiently, but sometimes those shortcuts trip us up.

Top-down and bottom-up processing

When presented with a simple sentence, as in the sketch, our minds may engage in top-down processing, jumping straight to the meaning.

In contrast, when something is unfamiliar, important (like an exam), or when our role demands precision (like a proofreader), we tend to slow down and use bottom-up processing—scanning each word more carefully.

Saccades

When reading, our eyes don’t move smoothly along a line—they jump in quick bursts called saccades. How far we jump depends on word length, spacing, familiarity and complexity. Some words may be skipped entirely.

Short, common and predictable words

Paris and Springtime, though well known, are less common than "the". We are more likely to focus on the less usual, meaning-carrying words and skip short, common, predictable words.

Layout matters

By stacking the sentence in a pyramid, we subtly guide attention downward and to the right. That extra “the” hides off to the left, where we’re least likely to look back.

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The psychology of what we actually do when we read is much more complex and fascinating than I first realised—as I find so often the case with things.

PS

Did you catch the repeated 'are', too?

Related Ideas to The Repeated Word Illusion

More illusions:

• The Droste Effect
• The ring-segment illusion
• The impossible staircase (Penrose stairs)
• Anamorphosis
• The moon illusion
• Hermann grid, Necker cube, Blivet

Also see:

• Leading, tracking, kerning
• The availability heuristic
• The frequency illusion
• Gestalt principles
• Context is king

More

This paper has an interesting discussion of word skipping and reading models that try to understand and simulate what we really do when we read: Drieghe, D., Rayner, K., & Pollatsek, A. (2005). Eye movements and word skipping during reading revisited . Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 31(5), 954.

I wasn't sure of the name of this illusion. If you know what it should be called, please let me know.