Speed reading promises are too good to be true
sciencedaily.com
Speed reading promises are too good to be true
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#2TL;DR: Speed reading is just like reading a short summary, and you won't understand the whole text.
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#3Bummer. I played with Spritz (a centered-text speed reading API) at a hackathon a while back, and was pretty impressed. It seemed that I could read with real comprehension at around 400WPH and "skim" at about 1000. A big part of your pitch was "moving from word to word takes most of the time while reading," and I thought they had research to support that.
It's still a fun thing to try if you haven't done it yet. The article points out what is pretty clearly the biggest problem with these speed readers - going back to re-read is a big UX challenge. My little hackathon app used a "back ten words" button (may have been what Spritz recommended?), but I also thought having the actual paragraphs scrolling above the Spritz text as you read would be a more useful way of solving this problem. If you get lost, skim the paragraphs around what you're reading, and press / click a word you want to start speedreading from again. In more dense material where you need to flip back a page or two, you might need some sort of zoom out functionality as well.
If nothing else, these technologies will hopefully find a use in wearables and other tiny-screen devices.
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#4TL;DR: Speed reading is just like reading a short summary, and you won't understand the whole text.
Irony!
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#5That was a quick read.
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#6TL;DR: Speed reading is just like reading a short summary, and you won't understand the whole text.
I've seen a few speed reading lessons selling on that angle. It's a good way to sift through stuff that doesn't come with a summary. Just slow down once you find the good stuff.
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#7Straw man? I've never heard it claimed that speed reading can give the same level of understanding as normal reading. Just that it's a way to quickly get a sense or gist of a work.
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#8Straw man? I've never heard it claimed that speed reading can give the same level of understanding as normal reading. Just that it's a way to quickly get a sense or gist of a work.
I've definitely seen promos for seminars that claim to "double your speed" and at the same time "increase your comprehension," so I'd say that speed reading being on par with normal reading is at least a real claim made sometimes and a perception that probably exists among many.
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#9i've been doing it for a while, and well to me it worked.
I didnt follow an official course just used tips around the internet. I was able to read a huge work related projected, and make the decision to go into it for our company or not. By speed reading i found the problems in the project a 500 page doc. And those where tackled by contract makers. later so it depends if you can do it or not, but dont put money in it
Re: Speed reading promises are too good to be true
#10Bummer. I played with Spritz (a centered-text speed reading API) at a hackathon a while back, and was pretty impressed. It seemed that I could read with real comprehension at around 400WPH and "skim" at about 1000. A big part of your pitch was "moving from word to word takes most of the time while reading," and I thought they had research to support that. It's still a fun thing to try if you haven't done it yet. The…
Yes, tech assisted speed reading should actually work while retaining comprehension, as your eyes don't move.