Alyssa can say any word backwards within seconds

By: William Goodman
Topics: Winning!

(CBS) - We last had an example of a cool "stupid human trick" back in December with a girl who could do something of a pop-and-lock with her eyebrows. Today we have a girl who can say any word backwards within seconds. Check it out.

What a fun way to start off the week! The video was posted by YouTube user 77Kittycole who writes about the talent:

You can say any common word to Alyssa. She will pronounce it backwards the proper way in 3 seconds or less. She's a freak. Lol

Well, if Alyssa is a freak, she's our kind of freak, and has definitely just earned herself a big triple-rainbow salute from all of us here at The Feed!

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by mhutch84 February 2, 2012 9:37 AM EST: I had to check this out because I have the same "talent". I was much faster when I was about her age (27 now) and it was something I rarely mentioned to people because it was definitely an obsessive compulsive impulse that I couldn't control, and it can be pretty embarrassing and frustrating to have to say and spell words backwards and forwards all the time. In other words, it wasn't something I set out to be able to do.

It started with counting the letters of the word on the fingers of one of my hands, always making sure to start with the finger that would allow me to finish the word on the thumb ( e.g. 7, 12, 17 -letter words would start on the index finger, 8, 13, 18 on the middle, etc...) For whatever reason, I can hear the word, visualize it, flip it around, and see, spell and say it backwards within about a second.

So, for instance, the word "backwards" would be "sdrawkcab". Of course, as someone mentioned, words don't have natural backward pronunciations. Just think of the word "Pronunciations"/ "sniotoaicnunorP" or "Think"/"knihT" and you'll see what I mean. I couldn't parrot the forward pronunciation in reverse the way you can by playing a tape in reverse, so I developed by own set of rules for "correct pronunciation"<--> "tcerroc poitaicnunorp".

Watching this girl and answering along with her, it seems we developed very similar rules for handling some of the tricky letter arrangements you get when you reverse a word.

Eventually I guess I just grew out of the compulsion and even though I can still see, spell and say words in the opposite direction, I can't do it nearly as quickly as I could back then (most likely because obsessive compulsive impulses lead to a lot of practice).

Any psychologists (official or armchair) reading this who can elaborate or explain this in greater detail? Is there a name for this specific expression of OCD (it is OCD, correct?) Very interested to see if this is a unique "talent" or if there are others out there with this same bizarre ability.

I'll try to check back on the comment board, but you can also find me on twitter @mhutch84 if you have any insights. Thanks!; Reply to this comment


by syastrow February 1, 2012 11:55 PM EST: Oh my dog! Wow! She speaks the same backwards accent as my brother and me! I could totally dnatsrednu her!; Reply to this comment


by cmangione45 February 1, 2012 5:13 PM EST: Hell, Lumbergh ****** her.; Reply to this comment


by nickmick2007 February 1, 2012 12:33 PM EST: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis; Reply to this comment


by mecanik-2009 February 1, 2012 10:54 AM EST: Maybe she could go into politics. They've been talking backwards to us for years.; Reply to this comment


by tmonta67 February 1, 2012 4:27 AM EST: anyone try "supercalifragilisticexpialadocious" on her? :); Reply to this comment


by rwsmith29456 January 30, 2012 7:03 PM EST: I wonder if this could be part of a cognitive ability that can be useful or harnessed in some way?; Reply to this comment