# Prof. Adam Alter's research on cognitive disfluency is mentioned

1 Faculty News April 1, 2014 ![](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_040096.jpg?itok=Yvtra_rK)>

Excerpt from [Smithsonian Magazine](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/does-thinking-fast-mean-youre-thinking-smarter-180950180/?no-ist) -- "Even the perception of speed can be deceptive. When things come easily or quickly, when we don’t have to struggle, we tend to feel smarter, a concept termed fluency. In one study, [Adam Alter](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/adam-alter) and fellow psychologists at New York University asked volunteers to answer a series of questions typed in either a crisp, clear font (a fluent experience) or a slightly blurred, harder to read version (a disfluent one). The people who had to work harder ended up processing the text more deeply and responding to the questions more accurately."

[Read more](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/does-thinking-fast-mean-youre-thinking-smarter-180950180/?no-ist)