Why can very familiar words suddenly look strange and misspelled for a short period of time?

Question

What's going on in the brain when this happens?

Answer 1

I know exactly what you mean.
I think it is the case that you are looking at the word apart from its meaning, and you are noting that it is a weird spelling. Example: TWO ( shouldn't that sound more like T-Woa and not To?)
Also, for me, a word is used all the time in speech but seldom in writing. So, it is both familiar and common but unfamiliar in its symbolic form. When speaking, I don't attend to the word's spelling. It is a case of my spelling it for the first time.

Answer 2

I think that when you've lost all sense of the word it's because you're over using it, and since it's not being connected to anything tangible, it's not being used, your brain soon discards it as useless information at the present time. When you need it in context next time, it can be applied, and therefore gain meaning once again. And sometimes when you're writing and you have to stop and try to figure out how to spell "here" or "was" and you draw a blank, I think that this is because you've never had to use your brain to think of these words because they usually come as a habit from years and years of use. Now you're asking your brain for information that's been in the archives for 20 years so it takes a second to retreive that information, a lot like a computer.

Answer 3

Which brain? All are functioning somewhat at all times but usually one of them is predominant. For example learning words is an intellectual function usually. So if at a certain time one began to feel a headache coming on, one would likely be attracted to using the instinctive brain more (or part of the brain if you prefer), since it is the one whose job it is to keep you alive.
Anyways it`s a matter of focus. You could go to the Fourth Way material for more info. or even read the book by Susan Zannos called Human Types.

Answer 4

you temporarily associated that word with something else
--or something else very similar to that word just came to mind and your brain is trying to recall both

It's a matter of context. Like cops always say that if they see people they know when they are in uniform, and they see them when the cop is out of uniform that the person either won't recognize them or will take a while in recognizing them (because the context is off)

another context problem. If you are fluent in more than one language and your talking to someone in one language and then see a sign in another language, your brain tries to keep in the same context and you try to read those letters in the language you were in the middle of speaking.

Answer 5

We all struggle with the lack of inspiration at times. Getting lost on a spelling of a familiar word is just an atomic version of such lack of inspiration. Like a hickup. It's temporary and recovers quickly.

Answer 6

Many times, we make a symbolic association in our minds concerning a word, and then when we see it written down, (minus the symbol) it seems to be in heiroglyphs.
This also can happen to me with spoken words when I am very fatigued. The darn words just sound foreign at first.

Answer 7

aluminum continuously seems misspelled to me *edit* both I misunderstood the question or i'm only no longer all that bright, reason to me you've been asking what be conscious do i imagine seems misspelled no longer which be conscious on your question...or possibly I ought to take yet another shot and then each and every thing will look high-quality

Answer 8

For me it is Dyslexia, but it only happens when I am trying to type.

Answer 9

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I am starring this question, because I want to know too. It happens most frequently when you repeat a word over and over, or think of the word over and over.

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