Re: XML.COM: How I Learned to Love daBomb

[Eric Bohlman <ebohlman@earthlink.net>]

8/19/01 10:37:22 PM, Rick Jelliffe <ricko@allette.com.au> wrote:

>I wonder if it is related to the well-known "doubles" phenemenon which is where a
>a "the" or an "a" (or any other word) at the end of a line is repeated by the typist at the 
>the start of the next line. This kind of thing is often very difficult to spot.

The "doubles" phenomenon is generally considered to be a case of "psychological set" where the mind 
perceives what it expects to see rather than what it actually does see (Douglas Adams' SEP field 
works on this principle).  It's actually a rather useful mechanism for conserving attention (it's no 
accident that we talk of "paying" attention; it's a scarce resource as far as the brain is concerned) 
but it bites you when you're trying to proofread or debug because it makes you see what you meant to 
write instead of what you *did* write.