How to to Comprehend and Read Faster
(Photograph: Dustin Diaz)
How much more than could you get done if you lot completed all of your required reading in ane/three or ane/five the time?
Increasing reading speed is a process of controlling fine motor movement—menstruum.
This post is a condensed overview of principles I taught to undergraduates at Princeton University in 1998 at a seminar called the "PX Project." The below was written several years ago, so information technology's worded similar Ivy Leaguer pompous-donkey prose, but the results are substantial. In fact, while on an airplane in Mainland china 2 weeks ago, I helped Glenn McElhose increase his reading speed 34% in less than 5 minutes.
I have never seen the method fail. Here's how information technology works…
The PX Project
The PX Projection, a single iii-60 minutes cognitive experiment, produced an boilerplate increase in reading speed of 386%.
It was tested with speakers of five languages, and fifty-fifty dyslexics were conditioned to read technical material at more than than 3,000 words-per-minute (wpm), or 10 pages per minute. One page every 6 seconds. By comparison, the average reading speed in the US is 200-300 wpm (i/2 to 1 folio per minute), with the superlative 1% of the population reading over 400 wpm…
If you understand several basic principles of the human visual organization, you can eliminate inefficiencies and increase speed while improving retention.
To perform the exercises in this postal service and see the results, you will demand: a book of 200+ pages that can lie flat when open up, a pen, and a timer (a cease watch with alarm or kitchen timer is ideal). Yous should complete the 20 minutes of exercises in one session.
Beginning, several definitions and distinctions specific to the reading process:
A) Synopsis: You must minimize the number and duration of fixations per line to increase speed.
You lot practise not read in a straight line, but rather in a sequence of saccadic movements (jumps). Each of these saccades ends with a fixation, or a temporary snapshot of the text within you focus expanse (approx. the size of a quarter at eight inches from reading surface). Each fixation will concluding ¼ to ½ seconds in the untrained subject. To demonstrate this, close one heart, place a fingertip on top of that eyelid, and then slowly scan a direct horizontal line with your other eye-you will feel distinct and split movements and periods of fixation.
B) Synopsis: Yous must eliminate regression and dorsum-skipping to increase speed.
The untrained subject engages in regression (conscious rereading) and back-skipping (subconscious rereading via misplacement of fixation) for upward to 30% of total reading time.
C) Synopsis: You must use conditioning drills to increase horizontal peripheral vision span and the number of words registered per fixation.
Untrained subjects use central focus but not horizontal peripheral vision span during reading, foregoing upwards to l% of their words per fixation (the number of words that tin exist perceived and "read" in each fixation).
The Protocol
You will 1) learn technique, ii) learn to apply techniques with speed through conditioning, and then 3) larn to test yourself with reading for comprehension.
These are split, and your adaptation to the sequencing depends on keeping them dissever. Practise not worry nigh comprehension if you are learning to utilise a motor skill with speed, for example. The adaptive sequence is: technique ' technique with speed ' comprehensive reading testing.
Equally a general rule, y'all will need to exercise technique at 3x the speed of your ultimate target reading speed. Thus, if you lot currently read at 300 wpm and your target reading speed is 900 wpm, you volition need to practice technique at 2,700 words-per-infinitesimal, or 6 pages per minute (ten seconds per folio).
Nosotros will embrace 2 main techniques in this introduction:
ane) Trackers and Pacers (to accost A and B above)
ii) Perceptual Expansion (to address C)
First – Determining Baseline
To determine your electric current reading speed, take your practice book (which should lay flat when open on a tabular array) and count the number of words in 5 lines. Dissever this number of words by v, and yous take your average number of words-per-line.
Instance: 62 words/5 lines = 12.iv, which you circular to 12 words-per-line
Next, count the number of text lines on five pages and divide by 5 to arrive at the boilerplate number of lines per folio. Multiply this by boilerplate number of words-per-line, and y'all have your average number of words per page.
Example: 154 lines/v pages = xxx.eight, rounded to 31 lines per page x 12 words-per-line = 372 words per folio
Mark your beginning line and read with a timer for ane minute exactly-do non read faster than normal, and read for comprehension. After exactly ane minute, multiply the number of lines past your average words-per-line to decide your current words-per-minute (wpm) rate.
2d – Trackers and Pacers
Regression, dorsum-skipping, and the duration of fixations tin can exist minimized by using a tracker and pacer. To illustrate the importance of a tracker-did you apply a pen or finger when counting the number of words or lines in to a higher place baseline calculations? If you lot did, it was for the purpose of tracking-using a visual assistance to guide fixation efficiency and accuracy. Nowhere is this more relevant than in conditioning reading speed past eliminating such inefficiencies.
For the purposes of this commodity, we will apply a pen. Holding the pen in your ascendant hand, you volition underline each line (with the cap on), keeping your centre fixation in a higher place the tip of the pen. This will not only serve every bit a tracker, but it will likewise serve every bit a pacer for maintaining consequent speed and decreasing fixation duration. You lot may hold it as you would when writing, but it is recommended that y'all agree information technology nether your manus, flat against the page.
i) Technique (two minutes):
Practice using the pen as a tracker and pacer. Underline each line, focusing above the tip of the pen. DO Non CONCERN YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION. Keep each line to a maximum of 1 2nd, and increase the speed with each subsequent page. Read, but under no circumstances should you have longer than 1 second per line.
2) Speed (3 minutes):
Repeat the technique, keeping each line to no more than ½ second (ii lines for a single "one-1-k"). Some will comprehend nada, which is to exist expected. Maintain speed and technique-you are conditioning your perceptual reflexes, and this is a speed do designed to facilitate adaptations in your system. Do non decrease speed. ½ second per line for 3 minutes; focus above the pen and concentrate on technique with speed. Focus on the practise, and do not daydream.
Third – Perceptual Expansion
If you focus on the heart of your computer screen (focus relating to the focal surface area of the fovea in within the eye), you can still perceive and register the sides of the screen. Training peripheral vision to register more effectively can increment reading speed over 300%. Untrained readers use upward to ½ of their peripheral field on margins by moving from 1st give-and-take to last, spending 25-l% of their time "reading" margins with no content.
To illustrate, permit u.s. accept the hypothetical one line: "Once upon a time, students enjoyed reading four hours a day." If you were able to begin your reading at "fourth dimension" and terminate the line at "four", you would eliminate 6 of eleven words, more than doubling your reading speed. This concept is like shooting fish in a barrel to implement and combine with the tracking and pacing you've already practiced.
1) Technique (i minute):
Use the pen to rail and step at a consistent speed of one line per second. Brainstorm i word in from the first word of each line, and end ane word in from the terminal discussion.
DO NOT Business organization YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION. Keep each line to a maximum of 1 second, and increase the speed with each subsequent page. Read, but under no circumstances should you have longer than 1 second per line.
2) Technique (ane minute):
Use the pen to rails and stride at a consequent speed of ane line per 2d. Brainstorm 2 words in from the showtime word of each line, and end 2 words in from the last give-and-take.
iii) Speed (3 minutes):
Begin at least 3 words in from the first discussion of each line, and stop iii words in from the terminal word. Echo the technique, keeping each line to no more than than ½ 2d (2 lines for a single "one-one-yard").
Some will cover nix, which is to be expected. Maintain speed and technique-you are workout your perceptual reflexes, and this is a speed exercise designed to facilitate adaptations in your arrangement. Do not decrease speed. ½ second per line for 3 minutes; focus above the pen and concentrate on technique with speed. Focus on the exercise, and practise not fantasize.
Fourth – Summate New WPM Reading Speed
Mark your commencement line and read with a timer for 1 infinitesimal exactly- Read at your fastest comprehension charge per unit. Multiply the number of lines by your previously adamant average words-per-line to get make up one's mind your new words-per-minute (wpm) rate.
Congratulations on completing your cursory overview of some of the techniques that can be used to accelerate human cognition (defined as the processing and employ of information).
Final recommendations: If used for study, information technology is recommended that you not read 3 assignments in the time it would take you to read 1, only rather, read the same assignment 3 times for exposure and retrieve improvement, depending on relevancy to testing.
Happy trails, page blazers.
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Source: https://tim.blog/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/
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