Speed Reading

[PracAthe]

Every now and again I hear of this phenomena called speed reading. Some even claim that this greatly improves your reading ability, with no loss to comprehension. However, as with all these types of claims, you have to wonder that if this is such a wonderful thing, why don't most people do this, or the government instituted it in schools. After all, I remember my father and older brother trying this when I was 8, although I can't remember if it made any difference.

Thus, I ask you, ******** or science?

 

[GreyICE]

Bull. I can read fast, but how I do it is only a little bit like what they describe, and I acquired that ability through years of, well, reading. I've never seen one that gets anyone anywhere close to my reading speed, so they strike me as complete horsecrap.

More to the point, the science isn't real solid: http://www.slate.com/id/74766/

A link I dragged of Wiki, but there's been lots of similar studies.

Though people do read faster than 400 WPM. I'm sorry, but a study of 16 test subjects demonstrates nothing other than Carver can't do a frikkin test. I love inescapable conclusions of a 16 member study. "And our inescapable conclusion was there's no such thing as a libertarian. SUCK IT LIBMAN!"

Ahem. What I'm saying is, at the moment, no clear consensus.

 

[skip]

Is this still around?? … Wasn’t it back in the 70 when it was popular? I haven’t heard of it since. I thought it went out with the pet rock.

 

[dafydd]

I learned it in 1966,it works for me.

 

[Bikewer]

I'm with skip, I hadn't heard much of speed reading since the 70s or so. As I recall, tests done at the time showed that the very high reading speeds came with an increasing loss of comprehension; essentially at the speeds shown in demonstrations it was shown that the individuals were "skimming".

 

[dafydd]

I'm with skip, I hadn't heard much of speed reading since the 70s or so. As I recall, tests done at the time showed that the very high reading speeds came with an increasing loss of comprehension; essentially at the speeds shown in demonstrations it was shown that the individuals were "skimming".

It all depends on what you're reading.

 

[GreyICE]

I'm with skip, I hadn't heard much of speed reading since the 70s or so. As I recall, tests done at the time showed that the very high reading speeds came with an increasing loss of comprehension; essentially at the speeds shown in demonstrations it was shown that the individuals were "skimming".

I test out as having an 'impossible' speed with a correspondingly high level of comprehension, so I find those studies appallingly bad (it's one thing to say that the 'average' person does something, but when one finds one counterexample to a thing labeled 'impossible' one must question the label).

 

[Lanzy]

Back in 1966 I took a mandatory speed reading class in Jr. high. I was in a small town in Tennesee that had gotten a grant to help us poor folk do better in school. For some strange reason I took it again in '67 & '68. In '66 my reading speed initially came in around 250 WPM, my final test in 1968 with 100% comprehension was 1762 WPM. Might have been woo, it was a long time ago, but my current reading for pleasure speed is about 800 wpm, but I can go over contracts and proposals faster than anyone I know, I can edit hundreds of pages of technical documents at extremly high speeds.
Maybe I would have done this on my own, but will never know.

 

[PracAthe]

"And our inescapable conclusion was there's no such thing as a libertarian. SUCK IT LIBMAN!"

O....k. You definitely read the second last word in the JREF banner up above, but you might want to move back two words....

As for the state of speed reading, there's actually quite a few online and offline programs offering to help you learn to 'speed read' by altering the speed/amount of text flowing in front of you. And about once a year I run across some website or another advocating speed reading, complete with anecdotes of how it got them out of impossible situations and all that jazz.

 

[StanBearclaw]

I wish I could adapt the way I read movie subtitles to other materials. When a sentence pops up, I can just dart my eyes downward, then go right back to the film. A snapshot of the words stays in my memory, and then I comprehend what I saw.

When I read normally, I process one word at a time and I can never manage to go much faster than if I were reading aloud. I always pause at commas and periods, and half the time I can't help but assign various accents to the narrator in my head. You should hear what JFrankA sounds like!

 

[GreyICE]

O....k. You definitely read the second last word in the JREF banner up above, but you might want to move back two words....

You might want to read articles in the future, when they're linked to you. Or refrain from commenting on commentary on the article.

Just friendly advice.

 

[dafydd]

I wish I could adapt the way I read movie subtitles to other materials. When a sentence pops up, I can just dart my eyes downward, then go right back to the film. A snapshot of the words stays in my memory, and then I comprehend what I saw.

When I read normally, I process one word at a time and I can never manage to go much faster than if I were reading aloud. I always pause at commas and periods, and half the time I can't help but assign various accents to the narrator in my head. You should hear what JFrankA sounds like!

The first lesson I had in speed reading was about shutting off the narrator in your head.

 

[StanBearclaw]

The first lesson I had in speed reading was about shutting off the narrator in your head.

Well? Don't hold out on me!

 

[PracAthe]

You might want to read articles in the future, when they're linked to you. Or refrain from commenting on commentary on the article.

Just friendly advice.

Prove to me how this article discusses libertarianism, and I will win the million dollar prize by sticking my head up my arse. It'd also be helpful to explain why you need to refer to this 'libman', because I'm having difficulty seeing him.

Are there many people on this forum like grayice?

 

[GreyICE]

Prove to me how this article discusses libertarianism, and I will win the million dollar prize by sticking my head up my arse. It'd also be helpful to explain why you need to refer to this 'libman', because I'm having difficulty seeing him.

Are there many people on this forum like grayice?

You... don't... nevermind. The point traveled err... right by...

You know, that in a sample of 16 people, on average, there's no libertarians, so they must not exist

P.S. I'm unique. And proud of it.

 

[IMST]

Why is it always the people with single digit post counts that like to lecture us on the forum's mission statement?
FWIW, I laughed a bit to myself @ the Libman comment.

 

[dafydd]

Well? Don't hold out on me!

Then you read the sentences starting at the second word and scan till the second last word,your peripheral vision will take care of the first and last words.After a while you start at the the third word and scan till the third last word.As for comprehension,it's not a problem for me.

 

[Richard Masters]

Every now and again I hear of this phenomena called speed reading. Some even claim that this greatly improves your reading ability, with no loss to comprehension. However, as with all these types of claims, you have to wonder that if this is such a wonderful thing, why don't most people do this, or the government instituted it in schools. After all, I remember my father and older brother trying this when I was 8, although I can't remember if it made any difference.

Thus, I ask you, ******** or science?

I bought Mega Memory and Mega Reading by Kevin Trudeau and his round friend. I was 12. First and last time I was ever scammed (to the best of my knowledge).

Paid for it with my own money too.

 

[tesscaline]

Then you read the sentences starting at the second word and scan till the second last word,your peripheral vision will take care of the first and last words.After a while you start at the the third word and scan till the third last word.As for comprehension,it's not a problem for me.

I actually read this way normally -- reading entire sentences, lines, and even sometimes paragraphs (short ones, mind you) all at once. No one taught me how to do it, and I didn't make any effort to learn on my own. It just came naturally to me.

I've never had my reading speed tested... So I can't throw a number out there for people. But I will say that as good as this manner of reading is for speed and content (I've never had a single problem recounting the content of something I've read, even a year or three down the line), it was hell for me on vocabulary assignments. Because I read the entire phrase/sentence/line/etc., and not single word by single word, I get the meaning of words from context and not by "recognizing a word I don't know then looking it up in a dictionary".

So... When we'd get those assignments in HS where the teacher wanted you to make a list of 5-10 words in the assigned reading that you didn't know, look up the words, and write down the definitions, I wound up having to "read" the assigned passages twice. Once to actually read them, and once to skim through to find words that I thought I was expected not to know.

The only other problem with reading this way is that I go through way too many books, way too fast. I can can go through easily 1200 paperback pages in a weekend, if not a single day. I've actually had to work hard at not reading so fast so that my book purchasing budget can last me a little longer.

 

[dafydd]

If I have to find a key word in a block of text on a webpage,it just seems to jump out at me.I get very frustrated if I'm looking at it with someone else and they're reading it line by line to find the word.