> > I find that sometimes my memory considers itself so reliable that I won't notice this kind of mistake even if I check word for word. I'm sure others have had similar experiences.
> >
> > My brain auto-corrects a lot of obvious errors too. In grade school, when I would copy stuff off the blackboard, sometimes someone else would point out a mistake that the teacher had made. I would wonder why I, the consummate teachers' pet, hadn't caught the mistake. Then I would look at my notes, and see that I had written the text down correctly. My brain had corrected the mistake without even telling me about it.
>
> Continuing this tangent, I seem to have a problem with numbers, but manage to do this auto-correcting anyway. Let's say I see the number 823 somewhere. When I look at it and mentally picture that number, sometimes I'll switch around two digits -- I might imagine 823 as 832. However, when I'm recalling that number either by saying the number or by writing it down, 823 comes out even though my mental picture of the number is wrong.
>
> This only seems to happen with numbers for me, never words.
>
> -FP

I've done similar things occasionally. It's usually words, not numbers, for me: There'll be a word, and I'll know perfectly well what it is and what I intend to say, but I'll wind up substituting another word and won't notice until someone points it out.

I've also noticed that when someone makes a typo, I usually auto-correct, but when someone makes a spelling error I always notice. I may have mentioned that here before. I suspect it's because of the kinds of mistakes that are made.

I wonder if the expert-memory and chunking ideas mentioned earlier are why I generally remember stories (movie or book) in much greater detail than my friends. It's weird to me that people forget characters and scenes in movies they watched within a week or so.

Also I've found I retain information from a class much better if I'm not taking notes. When I'm taking notes, I'm pretty much mechanically writing down what was said. When I'm not, my brain is a lot more active and it runs around making connections between what is being said and other, already-rooted concepts I have, and I remember the lecture or discussion without effort.

Lire"of course most people think this is just a cop-out"lyn