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Speed reading is a collection of reading methods which attempt to increase rates of reading without greatly reducing comprehension or retention. Methods include chunking and eliminating subvocalization. No absolute distinct "normal" and "speed-reading" types of reading exist in practice, since all readers use some of the techniques used in speed reading (such as identifying words without focusing on each letter, not sounding out all words, not sub-vocalizing some phrases, or spending less time on some phrases than others, and skimming small sections). Speed reading is characterized by an analysis of trade-offs between measures of speed and comprehension, recognizing that different types of reading call for different speed and comprehension rates, and that those rates may be improved with practice.[1]
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Psychologists and educational specialists working on the visual acuity question devised the tachistoscope, which is a machine designed to flash images at varying rates on a screen. The experiment started with large pictures of aircraft being displayed onscreen. The images were gradually reduced in size and the flashing-rate was increased. They found that, with training, an average person could identify minute images of different planes when flashed on the screen for only one five-hundredth of a second. The results had implications for reading.
Using the same methodology, the U.S. Air Force soon discovered that they could flash four words simultaneously on the screen at rates of one five-hundredth of a second with full recognition by the reader. This training demonstrated clearly that, with some work, reading speeds could be increased from reading rates to skimming rates. Not only could they be increased but the improvements were made by improving visual processing. Therefore, the next step was to train eye movements by means of a variety of pacing techniques in an attempt to improve reading. The reading courses that followed used the tachistoscope to increase reading speeds; it assumed that readers were able to increase their effective speeds from 200 to 400 words per minute using the machine. The drawback to the tachistoscope was that post-course timings showed that, without the machine, speed increases rapidly diminished.
Following the tachistoscope discoveries, the Harvard Business School produced the first film-aided course, designed to widen the reader’s field of focus in order to increase reading speed. Again, the focus was on visual processing as a means of improvement. Using machines to increase people's reading speeds was a trend of the 1940s. While it had been assumed that reading speed increases of 100% were possible and had been attained, lasting results had yet to be demonstrated.
It was not until the late 1950s that a portable, reliable and 'handy' device would be developed as a tool for increasing reading speed. The researcher was a school-teacher named Evelyn Wood. She was committed to understanding why some people were naturally faster at reading than others and was trying to force herself to read very quickly. It is told that while brushing off the pages of the book she had thrown down in despair, she discovered that the sweeping motion of her hand across the page caught the attention of her eyes, and helped them move more smoothly across the page. She then utilized the hand as a pacer, and called it the "Wood Method", which was renamed to Reading Dynamics in 1958. She coined the term "speed reading."[2]
More recently, speed reading courses and books have been developed to help the consumer achieve even higher increases in reading speed.[citation needed] With specific reference to pseudoscience concepts, companies have claimed to be able to extract meaning out of consciously unnoticed text from the para-consciousness or subconscious. These courses go by various titles such as photo-reading (1994), and alpha-netics (1999). Reading experts refer to them as snake oil reading lessons because of their high dependence on the suspension of the consumer’s disbelief.
Also, some speed reading proponents have taught that certain groups of people are more gifted at speed reading than others (young children, dyslexics, ADHD and others). Speed Reading 4 Kids (2003) and Damn the School System—Full Speed Ahead! (1973) are two books that have advocated speed reading for children, including some learning disabled.
Skimming is a process of speed reading that involves visually searching the sentences of a page for clues to meaning. For some people, this comes naturally, and usually can not be acquired by practice. Skimming is usually seen more in adults than in children. It is conducted at a higher rate (700 words per minute and above) than normal reading for comprehension (around 200-230 wpm), and results in lower comprehension rates, especially with information-rich reading material.
Another form of skimming is that commonly employed by readers on the Web. This involves skipping over text that is less interesting or relevant. This form of reading is not new but has become increasingly prevalent due to the ease with which alternative information can be accessed online.
Meta guiding is the visual guiding of the eye using a finger or pointer, such as a pen, in order for the eye to move faster along the length of a passage of text. It involves drawing invisible shapes on a page of text in order to broaden the visual span for speed reading. For example, an audience of customers at a speed reading seminar will be instructed to use a finger or pen to make these shapes on a page and told that this will speed up their visual cortex, increase their visual span to take in the whole line, and even imprint the information into their subconscious for later retrieval. It has also been claimed to reduce subvocalization, thereby speeding up reading. This encourages the eye to skim over the text but reduces comprehension and memory, and leads to missing important details of the text.
Schematic processing uses what is known as brain mapping to decode information in text at a much higher pace. It is based in part on the schematic processing work of Malcolm Knowles, and his theory of andragogy. When applied to speed reading, schematic processing uses the principle that the brain’s ability to comprehend information quickly is based on words or concepts being either familiar or unknown. By training individuals to use their existing brain maps more efficiently, they can then move through familiar words and concepts at a higher rate of speed. When unfamiliar material is discovered, specific study skills learned within this method then assist the reader in processing the new information for greater comprehension.
Some businesses selling courses and manuals on speed reading claim that it is possible to increase the reading to beyond 10 words per second with full comprehension, provided the course is followed and that the exercises are constantly practiced. However, a good deal of these courses and manuals are conflicting as to why and how speed reading should be adopted as a method.
Some other businesses claim that a person can double or triple his/her current speed. They claim that a person reading at 2 words per second (the average rate for untrained adult readers), can take a speed reading course and learn how to read at 5 to 7 words per second while maintaining, or even improving comprehension. In many commercial courses, in fact, the comprehension is only increased because the difficulty of the texts used in the course decreases.
One point of contention between the various speed reading courses is the assertions concerning subvocalization. Some courses claim that the main obstacle to speed reading is any form of subvocalization. But there is no evidence that less subvocalisation can improve reading or even can willingly be changed at all.[3] Other courses claim that subvocalization can be used on keywords in order to speed up learning and reading. Some proponents of speed reading claim that subvocalization can be broken down into two levels, only one of which will reduce reading speed.[citation needed]
Speed reading courses and books take a variety of approaches to the concept of reading comprehension. Some courses and books claim that good comprehension is essential to speed reading, and that comprehension will improve with speed reading. Special non-standardized reading comprehension questionnaires are provided in order to convince the reader of the effects of the program. Some courses advise that while comprehension is important, it should not be measured or promoted. Speed reading courses variously claim that not all information in text needs to be covered while speed reading.[1] Some claim that speed reading involves skipping text (exactly as has been measured during studies on skimming), whereas other speed reading promoters claim that all of the text is processed, but with some or most becoming subconsciously processed. Similarly, some courses claim that text should be serially processed whereas others say that information should be processed in a more haphazard or ad hoc fashion.
Reading Dynamics is the speed reading system taught by Evelyn Wood. It was advocated by President John F. Kennedy and other famous figures as a means of remembering the information from thousands of words read per minute.
The system centers on moving one's hand across the page in order to maintain eye focus on the words. Like most speed reading systems, it also suggests trying to suppress the instinct of subvocalization or "thinking aloud," instead focusing on the meaning of the words without being limited by the time it would take to mentally pronounce the syllables.
Maximum Power Reading was created by Howard Stephen Berg, speed reader and speed learning expert. In 1989 Berg’s world record speed reading claim was published in The Guinness Book of World Records, 28th edition.
Maximum Power Reading is Berg’s approach to reading for both speed and learning. Through the use of schematic processing[4] and other perfected learning strategies, the subject can develop skills to increase both reading speed, as well as learning efficiency.
The schematic speed reading system used integrates reading, study skills and memory strategies to increase speed, comprehension and commit new information to long term memory.
Berg’s schematic speed reading approach was tested in a double blind efficacy study by Strategic Service, Inc. in 1998.[5] The study tested groups of both child and adult subjects before and after completion of the 4 hour home study course, and found that both groups increased their reading speed by 60-70% on average. Comprehension scores for child subjects improved by 10% on average, but scores for adult subjects were between 13.72% and 62.14% worse.
PhotoReading is a commercial product promoted by Learning Strategies Corporation with the phrase PhotoRead at 25,000 words a minute. Doubts have been raised about the ability of the brain to take in such a quantity of data at once. The human vision span is somewhat limited for this purpose if peripheral vision is not utilized.
The PhotoReading system was said to be developed by Paul Scheele, co-founder of Learning Strategies. A company called Subliminal Dynamics claimed that Scheele took a related seminar on subliminal processing with them[6], which Scheele referenced on page 4 of the first chapter in the first edition of his book[7]. According to Scheele, PhotoReading differs from their system in at least three ways (quoted here verbatim)[8]:
In January 2000 Danielle S. McNamara submitted a preliminary report to the NASA Ames Research Center on photoreading. McNamara enrolled in a PhotoReading workshop under the tutelage of a photoreading expert trained by Paul Scheele. In three years this expert had trained over 150 individuals in PhotoReading. The trainee spent two months learning the PhotoReading technique. The two participants were "(a) the PhotoReading trainee who participated in a two-day photoreading workshop, and (b) the expert who provided the PhotoReading workshop." (McNamara 4).
McNamara first conducted five baseline tests to measure ordinary reading speeds and comprehension. Then, she administered five similar tests after using the PhotoReading technique. These tests included the Nelson Reading Comprehension Test and the Verbal Reasoning section of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). The study investigated fact-based tests since "PhotoReading has been claimed to be particularly effective for this type of text" (McNamara 5). Subject matter included physiology, perception, and biology. A single idea or sentence within each text formed the basis for each question. According to McNamara "The information in the text that is targeted by the question generally requires little prior knowledge and little active processing of the text to understand" (McNamara 6). In other words, these were relatively straightforward, factual questions.
The results of the study generally indicate that PhotoReading and normal reading require a similar amount of time to complete. In one test, the expert answered 37 of 38 questions correctly after normal reading, and took 19.43 minutes to complete the task. Then the expert took a similar test after PhotoReading the passage, and answered 38 out of 38 questions correctly in a time of 18.13 minutes. McNamara took the same test and scored a 92% both times; photoreading took 21.30 minutes whereas regular reading took 15.80 minutes. These results do not support Scheele's 25,000 words per minute claims.
In a text about perception, the expert read normally and finished the text in 8.82 minutes and answered three questions of eight correctly. Then, the expert "photoread" the text in 0.87 minutes and proceeded to read the text for another 8.12 minutes before finishing. After photoreading, the expert scored one out of eight questions correctly. These results do not support Scheele's assertions that Photoreading helps one study faster and with greater comprehension than with ordinary reading techniques.
In conclusion, McNamara noted that "In terms of words per minute (wpm) spent reading, there was no difference between normal reading (M = 114 wpm) and PhotoReading (M=112 wpm)" (10). In an attempt to explain the appeal of PhotoReading for some individuals, McNamara stated "One aspect of the PhotoReading technique is that it leaves the reader with a false sense of confidence." (12). [1]
Computer programs are available to help instruct speed reading students. Vortex Speed Reading was one of the early applications, but it was strictly a productivity tool – a program that only presented text one word at a time. Readers needed to focus on the center of the screen, not moving their eyes as they would while reading normal text.
A number of speed reading programs use a different approach. These programs present the data as a serial stream, since the brain handles text more efficiently by breaking it into such a stream before parsing and interpreting it. The 2000 National Reading Panel (NRP) report (p. 3-1) seems to support such a mechanism.
To increase speed, some older programs required readers to view the center of the screen while the lines of text around it grew longer. They also presented several objects (instead of text) moving line by line or bouncing around the screen; users had to follow the object(s) with only their eyes. A number of researchers criticize using objects instead of words as an effective training method, claiming that the only way to read faster is to read actual text. Many of the newer speed reading programs use built-in text, and they primarily guide users through the lines of an on-screen book at defined speeds. Often the text is highlighted to indicate where users should focus their eyes; they are not expected to read by pronouncing the words, but instead to read by viewing the words as complete images. The exercises are also intended to train readers to eliminate subvocalization, even though it has not been proven that this will increase reading speed.
Skimming on its own should not be used when complete comprehension of the text is the objective. Skimming is mainly used when researching and getting an overall idea of the text. Nonetheless, where time is limited, skimming or skipping over text can aid comprehension. Duggan & Payne (2009) gave readers a limited amount of time and compared skimming with normal reading. They found that the main points of a text were better understood after skimming than after normal reading. There was no difference between the groups in their understanding of less important information from the text.[citation needed]
Speed reading courses which teach techniques that largely constitute skimming of written text also result in a lower comprehension rate (below 50% comprehension on standardized comprehension tests) (Carver 1992).
The World Championship Speed Reading Competition stresses reading comprehension as critical, and that the top contestants typically read around 1000 to 2000 words per minute with approximately 50% comprehension. The 10,000 word/min claimants have yet to reach this level.
Much controversy is raised over this point. This is mainly because a reading comprehension level of 50% is deemed unusable by some educationalists (Carver 1992). Speed reading advocates claim that it is a great success and even state that it is a demonstration of good comprehension for many purposes (Buzan 2000). The trade-off between "speed" and comprehension must be analyzed with respect to the type of reading that is being done, the risks associated with mis-understanding due to low comprehension, and the benefits associated with getting through the material quickly and gaining information at the actual rate it is obtained.
Howard Stephen Berg was published in the 1990 Guinness Book of World Records as the Fastest Reader in the World reading at a rate of 25,000 words per minute. The figure was deduced from him reading different texts on over a dozen television shows, and being tested by over a dozen newspapers in various cities around the USA. On Cleveland's Morning Exchange, Howard completed an 1100 page book and scored a perfect score on recall. He was retested three years later on the same book using his recall from the previous show again with perfect recall. Dick Cavett had Berg memorize his autobiography in 90 seconds and he demonstrated perfect recall. On Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, Berg memorized a 200 page book, "Going to the Movies," by Quentin Crisp, and scored 100% on the extensive test given by the author.[citation needed] In July-August 1998 Strategic Services, Inc. conducted a double blind study of Mr. Berg's Mega Speed Reading Program. The Efficacy Report showed very favorable results for the participants.[9]
U.S. President John F. Kennedy was a proponent of speed reading[10] and encouraged his staff to take lessons.
Jimmy Carter, also a U.S. president, and his wife Rosalynn, were both avid readers and enrolled in a speed-reading course (which their daughter Amy Carter attended briefly) at the White House,[11] along with several staff members.
A critical discussion about speed reading stories appeared in Slate. Among others, the article raises doubts about the origin of John F. Kennedy's allegedly amazing reading speed. Ronald Carver, a professor of education research and psychology, claims that the fastest college graduate readers can only read at most twice as fast as their slowest counterparts, namely about 600 words per minute.[12] Other critics have suggested that speed reading is actually skimming, not reading.[13]
The somewhat controversial subject of speed reading arose to public attention in 1957 with Evelyn Wood's Reading Dynamics program. It introduced the world to the eye-popping concept of waving one's hands in wavy patterns over printed text and "absorbing" every word at speeds in 'excess of 1000 words per minute' with "100% comprehension".
The reality, of course, is somewhat different.
Companies even got a testimonial from President John F. Kennedy to promote the practice. John F. Kennedy actually had Evelyn Wood's teachers come to the White House to teach him and others speed reading techniques. Nixon and Carter also used speed reading.
What most significantly sets "speed reading" apart from "normal speed" reading is that the reader sees words and interprets them using visual thinking processes rather than simulating the speaking and hearing of words. Most people learned to read by sounding out words in their heads without moving their mouths, and become dependent upon imagining the "hearing" of the sounds of words to process them. In contrast to this, speed reading involves harnessing the visual cortex which has vastly more neurons than the audio processing parts of the brain. The visual cortex operates at dizzying speeds, all day long. Speed reading takes advantage of visual cognitive functions that are grossly underutilized in most people while reading. The training programs effectively teach a student to read by making him "deaf" to the voice of internally spoken words, causing the brain to retrain other parts of the brain to perform the same task. The visual cognitive functions slowly take over and learn to read in an entirely different way. Words are no longer pronounced as if a conversation is occurring in the reader's head, they are viewed as images, more like flipping through a picture book or watching a movie.
Virtually every speed reading system ever developed starts the student off with the same speed building exercises. The speed building phase of the training process accelerates a person's current reading speed by first eliminating reading practices such as sounding out words out loud to oneself, re-scanning over passages already read, and other common habits. Most teach a student to read by pacing through the text with their fingers. They feature an intensive program of exercises that slowly accelerate reading speed. The training exercises dictate that a speed reader should maintain a constant high speed through reading material, not slowing down for anything. This coaxes a reader's speed from a typical 240 words per minute (300 words per minute is more typical of college readers [1]) into the speed reading range which is generally considered between 600 and 2000 words per minute.
The more effective programs teach the students to re-learn how to read yet again once they have mastered the speed building exercises. The ineffective speed reading programs feature only the speed building exercises, which are completely useless without sophisticated thinking habits; and tell the student that they are "done" with the course and can read at some fantastical number of words a minute. In contrast, effective reading systems all encourage reading habits that adjust the speed to match the level of understanding needed, and train the reader that re-reading passages is critical to understanding. Any reading program that spouts a "words a minute" claim is balderdash.
Virtually all academic studies on speed reading have shown that speed readers score relatively low on academic reading comprehension tests as compared to normal readers. These studies typically have the speed reader reading the material only once at speeds five times that of a normal reader, not allowing the speed reader to stop and retrace. These studies often have flaws or limitations placed on the subjects which are not clearly disclosed. They use academic standards for reading comprehension which aren't always consistent with a person's reading needs in the real world.
People who find regular uses for speed reading skills find themselves taking a completely different viewpoint of speed reading than the academics. If a person needs to read a textbook or a poem, they will rarely use speed reading. If a person has a book on a subject they are familiar with but they are looking for new insight, then speed reading is the perfect way to quickly read the book while locating the information of interest.
Despite its derision in academic circles, it is the opinion of this author and of thousands of other people who continue to practice speed reading that speed reading is a useful skill that complements normal reading. There are simply some things that the brain cannot do when skimming or scanning that do take place when speed reading. Primarily the difference in opinion about the real-world utility of speed reading stems from HOW the reader reads, and the thinking and learning patterns the speed reader applies when reading.
Effective speed reading speeds of people who actually use speed reading skills are generally between 600 and 4000 words per minute. This speed depends upon a variety of factors, primarily the nature of the material, the alertness of the reader, the mental speed of the reader, the amount of practice of the reader, innate talent for speed reading, the thinking processes he has taught himself over the years, what he had for breakfast, etc etc etc. A 600 word per minute rate is fairly common among beginning and semi experienced speed readers. Speeds over 1000 words per minute require much more experience and intense concentration. Even at 600 words per minute, which is double or triple normal rates, speed reading can be extremely beneficial.
Most people who first learn speed reading are prone to believe that because their brains seem to be aware of the information they are looking at, that they fully understand what they have just read. The reality is that just being aware of information does not mean you really understand it or are going to remember it.
Probably the biggest weakness of speed reading is that it is easy to deceive oneself about how well his or her comprehension and learning of a text is. It takes competence with learning strategy to input information meaningfully into human long term memory; there is no substitute for proper study skills if remembering what you read is your intention. Essentially, at speed reading speeds, strategies are problematical at best. And not everyone has the right kind of brain to apply highly successful speed reading strategies at speed reading speeds.
Every college study skills course ever taught teaches that simply reading a passage once over simply doesn't work to really understand and remember course material, let alone trying to read over a passage at thousands of words a minute. A typical study skills teacher will stand up in front of their class and pronounce any and all forms of "speed reading" to be "poison for the mind" and anathema to good study habits. They claim that the claims of speed reading promoters of good comprehension are dangerous to reading. The basic crux of study skills courses is that to understand and remember course material, the reader has to actively do something with the information being learned -- specifically to selectively re-organize it in a manner that shows relationships between what the student already knows and between the elements of new information the student is attempting to learn. High speed reading doesn’t really give the brain much time to perform cognitive processes to “do something” with information the brain is exposing itself to.
Speed reading basically blasts the short term memory faculties of the mind with information. It is said that it allows a speed reader to make split second decisions about the value and/or relevance of information before it disappears forever. This does not give the long term memory facilities of the brain time to grasp them, even though the speed reader felt he or she was aware of what he or she was reading. It does, however, generally allow the reader to decide to slow down when interesting or relevant passages of text are encountered. Skimming and scanning also allow the reader to locate relevant passages.
Most people who do speed reading use what could be considered "passive" reading skills, meaning that they simply look at the words as they fly by and hope they will stick. Ideas come at the brain like the spray from a fire hose, and some are overlooked, so quickly that before the brain can consider the relevance or use for an idea, or accurately judge how well the idea was understood, the next one is being jammed into the cognitive circuitry for processing. The rapid speed effectively squashes the brain's ability to judge whether it understood an idea or to perceive or conceive of relationships. With the total lack of feedback of passive reading habits, the speed reader typically assumes that since he was consciously aware of the ideas as he read them, that he fully understood what he read. Speed reading tends to put the reader into a type of self-deceptive trance.
In sharp contrast to this, when reading at normal speeds, the brain has the ability to use better learning strategies and consider realistically if it understood an idea and the context around it, providing the feedback that reading researchers have measured is severely limited or non-existent in speed reading. When skimming or scanning, the brain has the ability to monitor its effective comprehension because it is acutely aware that it is looking at keywords and acutely aware of how thorough a perusal it is doing.
Generally speaking, the only way to remember what a person is reading is to USE the information being read for some purpose. Most people who attempt speed reading simply can not or do not think fast enough to organize information they are looking at for any purpose. The end result is that no "hooks" form that link the data being read into ideas that are already known to the reader.
Speed reading courses often attempt to promote a variety of mental contortions that help to offset the problems latent in speed reading. In practice, few of the students who attempt these contortions can actually use them with anything resembling success. However, many of those students who can do them consider them well worth the time spent learning and practicing them. That being said, they are still no substitute for conservative and well proven study skills.
To be blunt, speed reading is probably not going to work for you and the training will be a waste of time. Whether it works for you is essentially a matter of luck. You have to have the "right kind of brain". While virtually anyone can master the speed building exercises, few can take speed reading to the next level to make it genuinely useful.
One highly functional speed reading comprehension technique is described below in which the reader takes the mindset that he or she is giving a PowerPoint presentation on the topic. Essentially, the conscious focus of the brain is oriented towards preparing a speech on the topic being perused rather than trying to hope that text flying by like the spray from a fire hose will make sense and stick in the brain. It first requires the "student" to learn how to speed read the "old fashioned way" at extremely high speeds. Once this is "achieved", the speed reader has to completely re-learn how to speed read again from scratch. Developing "traditional" old fashioned speed reading habits first and getting them thoroughly ingrained allows the information input and scanning to take place at a habituated, mostly unconscious level. In this modified version of speed reading, rather than the incoming flow of information being the focus of attention, active cognitive processes that organize information dominate the forefront of the attention, with speed reading "skills" serving only to provide information for the speech preparation. All speed increases or decreases, complete stops, or regressions are at the behest of the speech making part of the brain. When the "speech" maker's mental prototype of the speech he is preparing has "gaps" or stalls or "holes" in it because of a lack of understanding of the material, the mostly unconscious "data input" part of the reading phase immediately begins rapidly searching both backwards and forwards through the text for information to fill in the holes. Essentially, the conscious attention of the active reader is 100% oriented towards feedback on comprehension, because he is actively paraphrasing everything that is read and actively filtering out useless ideas he doesn't want to include in his "speech". This is VERY VERY different than passive patterns of reading the text in a high speed linear fashion, which is akin to trying to force the brain to make sense out of a thousand speeding bullets whizzing by. The brain is CONSTANTLY monitoring its own comprehension, and actively deciding which parts of information to ignore and which to utilize. Every word that is read is read at the behest of the mental processes that are attempting to do something with information. Not all reading material is organized in a fashion that allows this technique to be useful.
This technique, and others like it require the reader to be able to visualize information in their heads in the same manner as a whiteboard (or chalkboard), to think visually. Thinking visually is many many times faster than thinking in an audio fashion, trying to sound out words to oneself, or verbally ponder the meanings of what is being read. This class of technique calls for the reader to picture the information they are reading in a visual representation of the material being read mixed in with the information they already know about the subject. Not everyone can do this, but with practice between 10% and 30% of people can eventually pull this off with limited success. Some (such as this author) think so rapidly in an inherently visual manner that they can keep up the whiteboards in their heads at speeds over 10,000 words per minute. It takes a lot of sleep, a lot of good food, a fair dose of caffeine, an inherent ability to think visually, and the willpower to master the technique. While it may sound like freak mental abilities are needed to do this, actually what happens is that freak mental abilities develop with practice. What is required is translating your thinking processes into visual representations. Huge portions of the human brain are dedicated to processing information visually, and as a result they are the fastest circuits in the brain for processing information. They simply need to be trained through practice.
By far the most effective visual thinking patterns for this purpose are modeling ones thinking after Mind Maps. Look up The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain's Untapped Potential by Tony Buzan (1996 version) on Amazon, and practice making them on paper. Very quickly you will get used to the techniques of organizing information visually in your head.
Deciding whether speed reading is inadvisable as reading researchers conclude, or a great contribution to mankind as can be inferred from the testimonials of speed reading promoters is left up to the reader. Expect to spend a considerable amount of time developing your speed reading skills and visual thinking habits.
What most people ultimately wind up with is learning how to turn the spigot of words on into their brains -- and nothing more --, which is ultimately worse than useless because it is totally deceptive in terms of what you understand and what you expect to be able to recall. The brain, unable to process information so quickly, simply flushes the old information out before it can form any type of mental representations of it. What most people who attempt to learn speed reading wind up with is a pattern of their brain's cognitive functions simply flushing everything they just read a few milliseconds before to make room for the material their eyes are currently looking at, with the ultimate effect of nearly nothing happening in the cognitive circuitry of the brain. The result is very limited memory, and virtually no actual comprehension.
Below we present some classic speed reading notions and exercises to allow you to try for yourselves if you have the time and inclination to do so.
Subvocalization or silent speech, is defined as the internal speech made when reading a word, thus allowing the reader to imagine the sound of the word as it is read (Carver 1990).
For the purposes of this article, there are essentially three forms of subvocalization:
Subvocalizing in style 1 or 2 are essentially the same. Both are extremely common in older readers who were trained before modern reading teaching systems were put in place. These patterns of reading warrant remedial reading training. They tend to place an absolute limit on reading speed in the neighborhood of 100 to 150 words per minute. These readers wait for the sounds of words to complete before moving to the next word. These readers will make many eye fixations upon each word, and often have a tendency to focus their attention on the sounds of the words rather than their meaning. This habit of reading essentially clogs the cognitive faculties of the brain with the labor of saying words to oneself. In many cases people who subvocalize using system number 2 are not identified by reading teachers, whereas those who read by mouthing the words visibly are quickly spotted. People who read using number 2 often go through life avoiding reading and getting poor grades in school because of their poor reading ability.
The goal of speed reading is to read rapidly. Speed reading courses generally introduce exercises to teach readers to read in a manner that suppresses type 1 and 2 subvocalizations. Most speed reading classes, thinking, and systems date back to the 1950's and 1960's when the term "subvocalization" as was used in these courses was intended to refer primarily to type 2 above.
In modern academic circles, the definition of subvocalization involves primarily type 3, and sometimes type 2. No matter how slow or fast a reader reads, there is no way to eliminate type 3 subvocalization, and according to muscle detection experiments, there is no way to eliminate involuntary muscle movement in the throat that corresponds to subvocalization. Trying to do so has deleterious effects on reading. Allowing the mind to be aware of the sounds of words is a natural process when reading and helps to reduce cognitive load, and helps the mind to access meanings to enable it to comprehend and remember what is read. No matter how fast a person reads or scans, there is always some amount of being aware of the sounds associated with words. Even deaf people associate the mechanisms of making sounds with the sight of words. Typically a person will know when they have "missed" a word or misread something if they find that they didn't "hear" a complete sentence, that they instantly realize that somehow their cognitive models of a sentence is incomplete or corrupted. (If you are finding that you are not catching problems with language or do not find yourself getting tripped up over bad writing then you are not "doing it right", and absolutely should slow down your over-eager pace. A person who tries to "read" and is going so fast that he is not catching onto problems with language and etc is not "reading", he is "scanning" which is decidedly something different than the "reading" of "speed reading".)
If you are mouthing words, or making any visible movements in the mouth, or throat, the best remedy is to keep a hand over that moving part of the face. This will allow you to become aware of the moving part and make efforts to eliminate that visible movement. This technique can also be effective when eliminating the turning of the head instead of the eyes when reading. It is effective for normal reading and of course may also be an added benefit for those interested in testing the efficacy of speed reading.
The habit of making noises while reading must eventually be abandoned. Most readers eventually can read without the crutch of using their finger to pace under the text.
Follow the exercise instructions above, and:
One of the main advantages to developing higher speed techniques such as this is that it vastly increases your working mental speed, and the reader's sense of urgency. Then when the reader slows down to a more moderate rate around 400 to 500 WPM, that reading rate feels very slow, and a lot more quick thinking can happen. Many people like to "warm up" by reading at speed reading rates before they read at a rate more conducive to comprehension. [2]
Most people who develop their own method of high speed reading use a modified version of skimming and scanning.
These people claim to "see" an entire paragraph in their mind's eye.
First, the reader searches for keywords in the text. These are somewhat randomly distributed. These randomly distributed eye fixations as the reader searches the text create a somewhat random scatter-pattern of filled "spots" in the "minds eye" of the text. Since the vision span of the eyes is essentially three to five words wide, and three to five words high, this scanning pattern fills in spots three to five words wide and high. With each fixation of the eyes, the brain begins a partial decoding process of every fragment of text in view. This partial decoding process helps to imprint the "image" of the text in the mind's eye.
Once the reader feels they have sufficiently searched the paragraph for clues to meaning, the eyes then fill in the rest of the mind's eye's image of the paragraph by directing the eyes to all the spaces in between the previous eye fixations in order to generate a complete "image" of the paragraph.
When there are enough spots filled in the image to generate 100% coverage of at least one clause - but sometimes as much as 5 lines at a time - a lightning fast mechanism "linearizes" the already partially decoded text. This "linearization" step of already partially decoded text occurs at a pace about 10 to 20 times as fast as a reader using the finger pacing technique, but creates the illusion to the reader that the linearizable text is suddenly being read in a linear fashion by a super super fast finger pacing.
After the linearization occurs, the eyes go back over spots of the linearized text for "double takes" and to allow further scrutiny and consideration of ideas. The eyes may well linger on the paragraph, going from interesting fragment in the paragraph to interesting fragment.
The pattern is: random keywords and the words in the area immediately around them, fill by scattering, linearize, re-scan interesting areas of the text.
It should be noted that incomplete filling of the image of the paragraph by attempting to depend upon peripheral vision or choosing to skip words results in gaps in the linearization steps which yield nonsensical partial sentences which would cause the brain to come to a complete halt trying to decode what one is reading. Also, sections of the paragraph "vanish" because of rapid short term memory decay, leaving "holes". In all such cases, the eyes instinctively backtrack to the unfilled area(s) of the paragraph in order to fill in the gaps so that the brain perceives a linearizable text.
Most experienced "natural" speed readers find the notion of "words per minute" to be alien and rather nonsensical, as their speed radically alters from paragraph to paragraph. The catch phrase "words per minute" implies a linear speed maintained on linearly traversed reading material. "Natural" speed readers are extremely non-linear in their approach. They are likely to read one paragraph at an effective speed of 300 words per minute, and the next at 12,000 when recognizing the information as useless. The notion of "comprehension" of useless information is equally as nonsensical. The goal of reading in this manner is to seek out relevant information and be aware of but essentially gloss over the rest. This is a stark contrast to "classical" speed reading which essentially mandates a steady even rapid pace with the fingers, and a naive expectation that the cognitive functions of the brain will magically keep up.
Classic speed reading techniques say that the reader should rely upon peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is the area outside of the vision span of the eye. The eye has an area of about six degrees of arc in which the macula of the eye has sufficient density of cone cells to resolve printed text. The theory is that a speed reader can reliably guess at what words are present in the "fuzzy" area outside the macula. In practice, this does not work.
Research indicates that only the words that were in focus and in the vision span that the eyes actually looked at could be components of answers in comprehension tests. Readers who attempted to take in too many words at a glance, or who tried to read so fast using finger pacing techniques that they tried to take in words using peripheral vision ultimately could not answer questions about the resulting garbled sentences involving the words not in direct line of sight.
Attempts to "read" that allow a reader to form garbage sentences and gloss over them not going through the mental stage of being aware of the grammatical structure of sentences, convinced the "reader" has understood the text, are completely dubious and have nothing to do with "reading"; they are a very crude, extremely self-deceptive, and ineffective form of text scanning.
Attempts to read using the "natural" speed reader technique are largely incompatible with attempting to rely upon peripheral vision. This is because using peripheral vision typically cause the reader to form garbage sentences. When using the "natural" method, the reader is acutely aware of the grammatical structure of sentences, which is a primary focus of the conscious concentration. The result of perceiving a garbled sentence due to an attempt at peripheral perception is that the brain becomes confused by gaps or by "nonsense", and the eyes are compelled to backtrack and fixate directly upon the areas previously captured only in peripheral vision in order to resolve the garbage into the actual message intended by the author. This happens so much that it is a primary component to the apparently random pattern of eye movements of the “natural” speed reader. Retracing as in the "natural" method is in sharp contrast to classical speed reading methods that dictate that the reader should make one single linear pass through the text material - a method of reading that is very full of problems such as depending upon peripheral vision.
Sometimes referred to as "false memory syndrome", the human mind has a pathological tendency to fill in gaps of memory with vivid creativity that has nothing to do with the original events. A speed reading person takes in a lot of information very quickly. When he tries to recall it, the brain invents its own version of the original message. Most speed readers feel that they are acutely and vividly aware of the information in the material they are reading as they read it. The brain, when attempting to recall it, recalls the feelings of being aware. It recalls the feelings or what it thinks are memories of the feelings, but often not the original information. To be consistent with the memory of the feeling, it creates memories that feel the same as the feelings he believes he is recalling from when he was speed reading the original passage. The brain unconsciously fills in gaps with ideas it creates on the spot, or ideas that it recreates from information it read elsewhere that have the same feeling and general context as the material that was being read. Because of this scrambling of old memories, random thoughts, and actual reading material, speed reading is often described as "putting the person's memories into a blender". Because of this memory scrambling tendency of speed reading, it requires a speed reader to realize how unreliable his memory is likely to be, and make allowances for it.
Many college reading classes stress that reading is made much more efficient by following the SQ3R system. This means:
Common sense reading techniques such as this are not antithetical to speed reading. Speed reading is not about blasting through text as fast as humanly possible in one pass (a misplaced myth about speed reading....), it is about efficiently wading through information. In most cases overall speed reading speed is actually increased by first surveying the text and forming questions about it. If you have a lot of active, pertinent questions to answer when you read something, your brain shifts from passive mode, hoping that information will stick, to a more active state in which it classifies information with specific "needs" for information. Overall speed reading speed can often be dramatically increased if you are reading solely looking for answers to a specific set of questions and are comfortable dismissing or ignoring everything else.
At any time you notice confusion about the material in a segment that you feel you need to understand or might need to understand, mark it with a highlighter or (even better) flag the passage by sticking a color post-it note at that section of the page. Come back to that section later when you have read more of the author's ideas and have more context with which to evaluate whatever it was that confused you. It takes about a second away from your reading to grab and attach a sticky flag, and during that second you are taking some time out to let your confusion settle in.
Many people find speed reading skills to be useful for the Survey phase of this. Using it to review can be somewhat deceptive.
Some material is so biased that it is ripe for someone to debate it. Actively try to imagine what a debater would counter the ideas in the text with. The more aggressively you come up with counter-arguments, the more emotional you are going to be about the information in the text, and thus the more prone to remember it. Some types of arguments are so obvious that you don't need to take any time out to think them up. Others require a little more intensive thought which slows reading down to a crawl. The more practice you get at "debating" authors of such material, the faster you can recognize and think up debatable counter points, and the faster you can read using this technique.
One of the biggest misconceptions of speed reading is comprehension. Many people claim there is no comprehension when speed reading, but these people themselves admit they have only practiced speed reading a short time or have not practiced at all. Comprehension is learned over time. When children first learn to read they have no comprehension. After reading for years they develop comprehension. When someone learns speed reading techniques, they must first learn the mechanics and speed, then they develop comprehension. This is no different than a child learning to read the first time. They learn to pronounce words, the mechanics, then when their brain can process this automatically, they learn comprehension. It is common for high school children to only have a 50% to 70% comprehension rate at normal reading speeds. Speed readers often report a 50% comprehension rate after a few months of practice.
Imagine giving a PowerPoint presentation to a board of directors about the contents of the material. In a PowerPoint presentation, information is organized on cards in a manner that simplifies and organizes the information according to the manner in which the reader interprets it.
Only a few items of information can fit on a PowerPoint card. Limiting the amount of information on a card keeps the quantity of information being organized at any one moment in time within the limits of human cognitive faculties. To get an appreciation of the reason for limiting the amount of information in a card, try pulling out a credit card from your pocket and repeat 6 random digits from it. Odds are you can do it. Then try repeating back 9 digits. Odds are that you will suddenly forget the digits, maybe remembering two of them. The brain has an information overload point somewhere between 6 and 9 elements of information it is attempting to juggle. Any attempts to juggle more than your threshold point are doomed to failure.
Now, the reader can organize information in his mental PowerPoint cards one of two basic ways. The first way is the traditional outline form that you see in typical PowerPoint presentations. This is appropriate for some types of information, but generally is less effective than a technique called mindmapping taught by Tony Buzan. Mind-Mapping is a graphical technique that uses bright colors and diagrams to show the interrelationships in information. Mindmapping works particularly well in this context because it creates visual representations of information using the high speed image processing centers of the brain. Somewhat obviously, mind-maps in this context cannot be as complex as a traditional mind-map because the traditional mind-map grows theoretically infinitely. The individual "cards" have to contain less than 7 elements or they will overload the short term cognitive faculties of the brain just like trying to repeat back 8 or 9 digits will.
The reader makes two or three passes through the material, spending no more than 10 minutes on each pass. The reason for limiting to 10 minutes is because most people have an effective short term memory limitation of 20 minutes for retaining new information using this technique, and the idea is to retain new information by being able to repeatedly expose yourself to information that becomes more familiar to you as to make each pass through the material.
Virtually every study system ever invented stresses the need to paraphrase what the reader has read in order to both reinforce and test his or her understanding. This card system performs much the same function. However it uses the visual centers of the brain which are literally hundreds of times faster than the audio processing centers of the brain.
Typically the reader puts together one or two "cards" per paragraph of reading material. At 4000 words per minute, the reader is typically generating one new card every two seconds. With each pass through the material, his mind generates successively finer ideas about what he is going to say about each topic on the card. Often by the third pass, the person has had the chance to integrate the entire text and can pull in ideas from other parts of the text into his associations with each of the "cards". His familiarity with the text by this third pass makes it quite natural for his existing knowledge to figure into the picture.
This system is best mixed with the "natural" speed reading pattern described above, because this pattern allows enormous freedom of eye movements and attention. This freedom is generally necessary because gaps in understanding at high speeds are very common. These gaps are best filled by having the freedom to hunt and search the text. Trying to put together PowerPoint cards and make sure that the reader is putting all the information that is relevant onto them is quite unworkable if one is trying to follow a steadily paced finger. The brain has to jump around because the PowerPoint presentation cards can only very rarely be organized in the same manner as the text being read has been organized. Generally speaking, if a reader is trying to organize his mental PowerPoint cards to follow the organization of the text he is reading, he doesn't understand the material and is trying to be a mindless parrot - which simply does not work.
As described in the introduction, reading using this system is an example of "active" reading. The conscious attention is oriented 100% towards providing feedback upon what the reader actually understood. This creates an essentially instinctive pattern of re-reading, skimming, scanning, and other strategies to compliment the parts of the text were initially partially understood. Whereas a typical speed reader would be attempting to make one pass through a section of reading material, the person following this pattern might make as many as a dozen to insure that he understands what he is looking at. Some parts go by fast and simple at full sprinting speed with simple cards that fly up in a quarter of a second, some parts require more careful paraphrasing. Some parts might be very step by step and technical, material that does not lend itself at all to the mental processes of speed reading but rather requires 150WPM or less plodding. If the reader is reading against an unrealistic deadline, he may well simply decide that material that demands a slow careful reading is too much to handle at high speeds and skip it altogether (flagging the page with a physical post it note, for example), not kidding himself that he has any chance of understanding it because he can't even put the basic ideas up on a "card".
Most people who read using this method report that it seems to induce a bizarre kind of trance that leaves the mind running at an extremely high speed with a feeling of euphoria. This indicates the very high speed reading, 1500 words per minute or more, that requires truly deep concentration and focus.
Reading should be an extremely active mental process. Mental activity ranges in speed from slow and ponderous to instantaneous. Reading speed should necessarily reflect the speeds of the inner mental processes. Experienced visually oriented readers who read for understanding typically vary their speed through text.
Good speed reading systems do not teach a fixed reading pace and instead encourage readers to vary their reading speed to fit the material. Some material requires more comprehension and thought, while most material can be read at higher speeds. Bad speed reading systems try to force readers to read at their maximum speed no matter what the material is.
Regression is going back and re-reading a section of text that you feel compelled to for whatever reason. Most speed reading classes/systems assert that regression is anathema to their reading system. In practice, avoiding regression is only advisable while you are doing exercises to develop your skills, not for actual material that you need to understand. Common sense tells you that if you are reading to understand something and there is something that you didn't understand, there is merit in going back and reading something again.
The eye movement patterns of "natural" 10,000 WPM speed readers usually appear to be completely random as they look over a page. Their eyes move both forwards and backwards in order to "fill in the blanks" that they did not "capture" or "understand". They can often be seen flipping pages backwards to look back at a previous page they already read. Developing a habit of becoming aware of something you did not completely understand and going back to read it with scrutiny is a critical habit to develop for comprehension rather than pushing ever forward in the pursuit of speed.
On the other hand, keep in mind that repeatedly re-reading a text can slow you down. Quite a bit. Typically you stall for a moment of confusion deciding what to do about your moment of confusion, and then make a decision as to whether to go back and re-read or to continue on forward. If you are reading material that has been half-way decently prepared, your point of confusion that leads to the impulse for regressing has been predicted by the author and will be explained in a subsequent sentence or paragraph. As a general rule, WAIT and keep reading forward before regressing. If you still find yourself to be confused, then go back.
Speed reading in all forms is essentially incompatible with long term memory. You cannot speed read your textbooks and expect the information to stick no matter how well you understand the material in short term memory or how aggressive your comprehension techniques are. Quality speed reading systems will explain this. Speed reading can be used to go through reviews of past chapters and parts that do not require deep comprehension. Slower reading skills are used on new material that requires thought and reflection.
The bottom line is that you have to repeatedly use information in short term memory within about 20 minutes of reading it, or else it has no chance of making into long term memory. With the amount of information a speed reader tries to tackle, finding uses for it all within 20 minutes is improbable. Speed reading is however a visual intake of information which can be, though loosely, compared to viewing a movie. After viewing a movie, you can remember individual scenes for years afterward even though you may have only seen them for a fraction of a second.
Nothing can substitute for sane, normal study skills taught at your local community college. [3] Committing information to long term memory simply requires a very different approach. It simply takes time and effort to commit things to long term memory. Speed reading is another tool in your study toolbox which you can pull out and use when the time is appropriate, like for quick reviews, to find information, for research and other appropriate times.
Consuming quantities of foods that have a high glycemic index (pasta, baked potatoes, white rice, bananas, puffed breakfast cereals, soda pop, fruit juice etc) causes the pancreas to pump out large quantities of insulin. This has the effect of causing the muscle and fat cells to stabilize the blood sugar by removing the excess glucose sugar.
In addition to removing sugar, high levels of insulin also cause muscle and fat cells to remove AMINO ACIDS from the bloodstream. Amino acids are the end product of the digestion of dietary proteins. Brain cells build neurotransmitters out of the basic amino acids. Without a healthy amino acid supply, the brain cannot think quickly. The net effect of consuming high glycemic index foods is that the brain winds up starved of neurotransmitters and is very impaired for speed reading.
Low and medium glycemic index foods such as whole grains, beans, and fruit should be dietary staples because they provide a steady constant stream of glucose sugar to flow from the digestive system. Some form of protein should also be consumed with meals prior to attempting speed reading to provide the amino acids for the brain to build neurotransmitters. (Generally easy to digest animal proteins such as eggs and fish work better than red meat or proteins from grains or beans - and many people have problems with milk.)
In the bloodstream, fats and oils are carried on the outside of red blood cells. If a red blood cell is carrying too much fat, it will block the entrance to a capillary until the pressure of nearby blood cells moving through the blood stream either force it into the entryway to the capillary or force it away from the entryway to capillary. The end effect of eating a fatty meal is a reduction in the rate of oxygen supply to the cells being supplied by that capillary. Not many people can speed read effectively after eating a stick of butter.
Any form of intellectual activity uses brain cells. Brain cells need both sugar (glucose) and oxygen in order to fire. If you don’t eat, or don't breathe, your brain won't go. Generally speaking a person undertaking any type of study should develop the habit of breathing deeply from the diaphragm. Most college study skills teachers recommend breathing deep once every six seconds in a manner that causes your stomach to protrude rather than your chest lifting. If you don't do this, the odds of success at speed reading or any other form of intellectual activity are considerably reduced.
"Speed reading" fiction at high speeds does not work very well. This is because fiction focuses upon the emotional experiences. The human brain is simply not fast enough processing emotions to push the envelope. At best, a speed reader of fiction remembers an account of events, but does not have the experience that the author had in mind for the reader. Novels are best read in 'real time' to experience the moment. Speed reading can improve the fiction experience. Speed reading involves adjusting the reading speed to suit the material. Novels often have long descriptions and backstorys which can be read using speed reading methods. This allows the reader to zip through the slow sections and return to the 'juicy' parts more quickly which are then read at the readers normal pace.
Many people report that it is next to impossible to "speed read" a CRT computer screen at speeds over about 1000 words a minute. A speed reader's eyes move VERY rapidly, settling only for very short periods of time. The computer screen, being redrawn electronically 60 to 100 times a second (called the refresh rate) creates multiple frozen images in the eyes of the reader as his eyes move between each group of words. To get an idea of the effect, wave your hand in front of a CRT screen as you read this text. You will see multiple "frozen" images of your hand rather than a blur. Essentially, this creates about 5 copies of the text superimposed upon each other as the eyes move between fixations on the text because of the slow decay of visual images in the human eye. The human eye has to stop long enough to get a good visual image in order to physically see what it is looking at. When there are multiple superimposed "ghosts" from successive screen redraws, the eye/brain combination gets very confused about what it is looking at. This "ghosting" effect is more exaggerated with smaller text on the screen. Note that this effect is generally not present with newer LCD based display screens such as those in laptop computers and the LCD desktop "flat panel" displays. The pixels on those screens generally "stay-on" during the screen refreshing, and should be similar to printed material for speed reading purposes.
There are two different camps when it comes to speed reading software. One camp says it is the scourge of the earth and forces the student into "inorganic" reading methods that do not work (this author is in that camp). Real world reading material requires the reader to dynamically adapt to the material he or she is reading, and speed reading software forces a rigid pace on the reader. People who learn to speed read with software usually become dependent upon the software and have to unlearn everything they learned from the software and re-learn how to speed read all over again.
Real reading is an organic process that defies some machine trying to control your brain.
Other experienced speed readers swear by it as in this quotation from an earlier draft of this wikibook:
Speed reading is the name for a number of ways to increase the speed at which a text can be read, so that the important facts of the text can still be understood. There are different ways to improve reading speed, but they are all similar. A trained reader is able to read and understand between 200 and 300 words per minute, for a text that is not very difficult to understand. Better training can improve this speed to over 1000 words per minute. Using a lot of exercise, it is possible to increase reading speed further. The best readers can read between 3000 and 4000 words per minute, and understand about 80% of them.
In general, only a small part of the letters read are seen clearly. The brain guesses what the rest of the word is, based on a small part of the word. This also applies to groups of words, which are treated the same way. Known groups are handled faster, because the reader knows them, and also has an "image" for them.
What is very important when reading text is the ability to recognise words and word groups. The reader will then add the known image to the context. A known font can help this.
What is bad for speed reading is having a bad short term memory. Another factor is a small vocabulary. People who only know few words, need more time to "scan" unknown words, simply because fewer words in the text are known.
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