Paris in the Spring

Paris in the Spring is a popular song composed in 1935, with lyrics by Mack Gordon and music by Harry Revel. It was first introduced by Mary Ellis in the film Paris in Spring. A version was also recorded by Ray Noble and His Orchestra (also in 1935). In 1960, Jo Stafford and her husband Paul Weston recorded a version for their comedy album Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris in which they put their own unique interpretation on the song.


Psychological test

This song title is often used in an informal psychological test. "Paris in the the Spring" is written with an extra "the". A subject is asked to read the text, and will often jump to conclusions and fail to notice the extra "the", especially when there is a line break between the two thes.[1][2]

The reason that the second ‘the’ is skipped while reading that line is because of saccades. Saccades are jerky movements that eyes make when looking around. The brain counteracts these movements by steadying them and making everything appear smooth. While the brain is using saccadic movements to read, it searches for the most important words and skips over the less important ones, and fills them in using the words around it and what the brain sees when it quickly skips over it. For instance, in ‘Paris in the the Spring’, the eyes will read Paris and quickly move ahead to Spring, and just glance over ‘in the the’, leading the mind to completely disregard the second ‘the’.

When speaking, the mind plans what will be said before it is said. Sometimes the mind isn’t able to plan in advance and the speech is rushed out. This is why there are errors like mispronunciation, stuttering, and unplanned pauses. The same thing happens when reading. The mind doesn’t always know what will come next. This is another reason that the second ‘the’ can be missed.[3]

Notable recordings
gollark: You can't stop me from existing if *you* don't exist.
gollark: I'm going to continue existing and you can't stop me! Take that, regime of some sort!
gollark: You know, I considered that a *bad* thing when I was writing it.
gollark: Or be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
gollark: How to avoid problems in an authoritarian regime: just don't dissent. Or seem like you might be dissenting. Or be related to anyone who's dissenting. Or be related to anyone they think is dissenting. Or make mistakes. Or not immediately follow any instruction given. Or say anything which could be interpreted as dissenting.

References
  1. Eysenck, Michael; Keane, Mark (2005). Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Handbook (5th ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 2. ISBN 9781841693590. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  2. Eir (1 August 2013). "Paris in the Spring: An introduction to Cognitive Psychology". Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  3. 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.
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