Abstract
In this paper an attempt is made to suggest the psychological processes involved in perception by examining the structure of writing systems that have been developed for use when the writer is under pressure. The paper presents an historical survey of English shorthand systems and a more detailed account of two of the fastest systems in current use (Pitman New Era and Gregg Simplified). These systems are compared with the abbreviatory conventions common in newspaper advertisements. A general conclusion is that all the systems examined make use of abstract linguistic information and combine information from several distinct linguistic levels. Such systems, it is argued, are particularly appropriate for someone attempting to form an integrated percept from many different sources of information.
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Smith, P.T., Pattison, H.M. (1980). English shorthand systems and abbreviatory conventions: A psychological perspective. In: Kolers, P.A., Wrolstad, M.E., Bouma, H. (eds) Processing of Visible Language. Nato Conference Series, vol 13. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1068-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1068-6_3
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