Wondering about subvocalization, what about reading in a language I never learned to speak?
unless it used an alphabet you don't know how to pronounce that's impossible.
Is speed reading really possible?
11–20 of 148 posts
Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#12I read this at 800 wpm (adjust this down @ 10-20% if a test I did a while back still stands) fairly comfortably using http://www.spreeder.com/app.php . I find it very much easier to stay "in the zone" using it.
This is called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_serial_visual_presentatio... ). After a few hours (or minutes) you start to identify the drawbacks presented in the wiki.
Yeah I should probably add, I've only used it intermittently. For whatever reason I don't find it comfortable enough to replace regular reading. It works best for articles and the like where I want to actively extract information or quickly ascertain quality.
Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#13In so far as I have had "success" with speed reading it has been to force myself to run over the words more quickly and so interpret the commonly seen structures as single units. This means that if a piece is written in a very formulaic style then I can get through it fast because most of the stock sentences read like single words with only the unique modifiers jumping out of the page.
Think about when you look at code and automatically chunk the bits you have seen a million times before but are somehow magically able pick out the needle in the haystack which tells you what is special in this instance. The layout of code helps enormously for us, but I find the effect is the same with reading if I go quickly and with specific purpose to reformulate the information as it is scanned. And the more you do it the better you get because you have more data to draw from when identifying structures. It gets to the point where often I want an author to be formulaic rather than stylish and idiosyncratic because it makes it much quicker to reorganise and internalise.
Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#14Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#15Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#16there are plenty of books around this topic. In short there are a at least 4 ways speed reading that you use for different materials. As the other comment pointed out the 1st thing you have to do is stop vocalizing what you read, then you need to learn vocabulary so you would know all of the words without putting much thought to it. speed reading can really be a game changer, I used to get bored of books myself, but…
But do you experience the same limits as stated on Skeptoid? Are your reading at 500-600 words per minute, with full comprehension, or even faster?
I can read pretty quickly (I've never really measured, but it takes me about a minute to read a page, which I guess is around 500 words). Depending on the text, though, there's a lot of slowing down or re-reading. I read Harry Potter pretty quickly, but "Thinking: Fast and Slow" is nowhere near at the same pace.
Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#17Wondering about subvocalization, what about reading in a language I never learned to speak?
Steve Pavlina reported that he stopped subvocalizing thoughts when he did his polyphasic sleep experiments.
Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#18In so far as I have had "success" with speed reading it has been to force myself to run over the words more quickly and so interpret the commonly seen structures as single units. This means that if a piece is written in a very formulaic style then I can get through it fast because most of the stock sentences read like single words with only the unique modifiers jumping out of the page. Think about when you look at co…
> It gets to the point where often I want an author to be formulaic rather than stylish and idiosyncratic because it makes it much quicker to reorganise and internalise.
Hence legalese, and bureaucratese, and any number of other things that get laughed at and railed against in equal measure.
Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#19At around 7 or 8 years old, my reading level was several grades ahead of schedule. I was consuming large (for my age) novels with no sweat.
My parents noticed this and gave me a speed reading book. I incorporated each an every item on that book including the removal of subvocalization. It certainly gave returns right away, allowing me to consume books at a faster rate, but a huge cost.
Years later, I entered college as an engineering student. I noticed that when reading highly technical textbooks, and classes that required deep comprehension of text, I was much much slower that my classmates, or my comprehension level was much lower. Turns out, it was taking almost double the time for me to get through a section.
Really wished I didnt read the speed reading book now. I dont blame my parents at all, it was unfortunate that at nearly 40, i'm still trying to unlearn what that speed reading book taught me. I'm trying to re-learn subvocalication but its very very hard to 'slow' myself down. I've actually installed screen readers to replace subvocalization with some positive effect.
Re: Is speed reading really possible?
#20How do deaf (since birth) people subvocalize?