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By reading these articles, you will learn and understand new ways to read in a better, faster and much easier way.
How we read
In the beginning, we are taught to read by identifying the letters of each word and creating the word. With further teaching, we slowly develop the ability to identify the word itself and so we start to read from word to word across the page and down. During this period we create most of the reading habits that we use during later life (see below).
How we speed read
In 1950's Evelyn Wood discovered that a hand brushed across the page drew the eyes in a much faster way than was possible with normal reading whilst it was still easy to read the words. She had discovered a way to change the method used by the eyes to view text.
When we read normally, the eyes jump from word to word in Saccadic Jumps, our still photography mode of looking at static scenes. Evelyn Wood had discovered how to use the eyes in Smooth Pursuit and increase reading speeds. Smooth Pursuit is our video camera mode, used for tracking a moving object while still being aware of the background underneath (See our more detailed explanation of eye movement in reading)
Every speed reading technique or lesson and all tachioscopic software have followed this example, there are differences between each course, but the basis of all speed reading remains the same, the use of Smooth Pursuit visual tracking.
Note: If we use a pointer to read, like a finger or a pen, we immediately use Smooth Pursuit ourselves and automatically increase our reading speed. The best color for the pointer tip is gold or yellow as these greatly attract the eyes.
The limitations of Smooth Pursuit based methods are:
- the time it takes to develop the technique to significant speeds
- there is a maximum speed, as we move faster the words become blurred
What factors are involved in speed reading?
Aside from eye movement, there are a number of other secondary factors that influence our reading. These factors are mostly the habits we developed when we first learned to read.
- Sub-vocalizing: speaking the words as we read limits our reading to the fastest we can speak
- Regression: flicking back-wards over words already read, this reduces speed by 20%
- Span: reading one word at a time, we are able to do much better than this
- Boredom: because we read too slowly and the mind wanders
More detail on the factors affecting reading speed.
- Comprehension: This depends on the text and our vocabulary
- Concentration: mostly a product of boredom
- Recall: relaxation improves memory recall
Beyond speed reading...
The speed limitation of Smooth Pursuit is inherent in the method and so fixes a maximum speed. In order to accelerate beyond this speed, it is necessary to once again change the way the eyes are used.
Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, RSVP, is a method for displaying one or more words on a screen at the same location and changing the displayed words at a controlled speed. RSVP takes the best of both visual control systems. As we watch the changing words, our eyes stay focused on a single point, so we remove the need to make Saccadic jumps and with that we remove the time lost from Saccadic suppression. In addition, as it is the words that change, we remove the blurring from Smooth Pursuit.
It is now possible to massively increase our reading speed.
Even better, our need to spend days and weeks practicing has been removed.
Faster reading is now instantly available as and when we need it.
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