Speed Reading featuring Text Perception
Hello to all. Based on previous experience , I consider it necessary to immediately place everything on h. The technique described below is not my invention. However, from my own experience I can assure you that it works. Exactly as promised.
The idea described in the post appeared a long time ago (there is a story under the cut), in the form in which I will tell it, for the most part it is presented in the wonderful books of Tony Buzan Use You Head and The Speed Reading Book (the last is a lot of water).
Fasting affects the problems of speed of reading, understanding of the text, as well as methods for significant improvement of both.
Written by the user cympak . Dedicated to all who read a lot: whether it is business documents, art works or articles on Habrés like this.
')
Before proceeding to the most important, I ask you to take a test of six questions for Yes / No.
1. Reading at a speed of over 1000 words per minute is impossible?
2. Slow reading speeds contribute to a better understanding of the text?
3. To skip words while reading is a bad habit that impairs text understanding?
4. By default, we all read with the “natural” speed for us, and therefore the best?
5. If you do not understand a word or sentence, is it better to re-read it and understand?
6. Are your eyes in constant motion while reading?
For the results and, finally, interesting things, welcome under cat.
Answer NO to all questions :) If you answered at least one question YES, then you will learn something interesting from this article. The rest already know the topic and can go directly to the comments :)
Plan.
Preface.
I. History of fast reading.
Ii. The key to everything is eye movement (what is good and what is bad).
Iii. Exercises and techniques.
I will not talk about such (quite important) things as motivation or creating a comfortable working environment . And I do not talk about the methods of memorizing information. This is such an extensive topic, that perhaps I will dedicate a separate habratopic to it.
Here I focused a little on the other.
Then the wise command organized attention-raising courses for combat pilots. It looked like this: the Pilot sat down in front of the tachistoscope and for a short time he was shown photos of his and others' aircraft. Over time, the display of each photo decreased, and in the end it turned out that even if the photo (large enough) is shown for one five-hundredth (1/500) second, a person can still catch it.
Later this discovery was decided to be used for civilian purposes, namely: in the course of increasing attention when reading. With the same tachistoscope, people were shown words for short periods of time, then a couple of words, then four words, reducing the time for displaying one slide to the same one five hundredth second, and people could still catch and recognize all four words.
Now, of course, there is no such training, there are more humane methods, but the idea is still based on the same thing: a person can pick up words quickly, and not one at a time, but in groups. But, let's order.
And it will be completely wrong. In fact, the movement of the eye when reading is not at all uniform. I think you know that on a fixed object the human eye can focus only if the eye itself is fixed (guess what the rule is for moving objects). The text in the book is clearly motionless. Therefore, the eye movement in a simplified form (within the line) looks more like this:
I will use the word “fixation” because I have not found anything more appropriate in Russian.
Thus, we stop at the word, read it and move on to the next word. This happens quite quickly, so it seems to us that the eye moves evenly. The transition from word to word is very fast, its time, we will assume, is statistically zero.
The picture above is a simplified version, even idealized. In fact, almost all of you (since this is new to all of you) read more like this:
It seems that this person ^^^ has no chance to learn to read quickly and accurately. But no, all problems can be completely solved.
1. Returning to the previous word is not necessary for understanding, 90% of such returns are made by the reader only because it * seems * to him * that he did not understand or did not catch the word. In the remaining 10%, he didn’t really catch it, because it does not make sense in the context of the sentence.
2. The time of each fixation can be reduced to 1/4 second. Do not worry, this is not too short a time, because the eye can pick up words in 1/500 of a second (but we cannot read so quickly, because the brain will not keep pace with the eye).
3. Each fixation may include not one, but several words (with sufficient training - do not believe it - even a couple of lines at a time).
Let's talk about the third paragraph (a few words for fixing), because this is our key to quick reading. It looks like this:
At first, this may seem complicated or unnecessary. However, in fact, in this way of reading there is nothing but pluses.
Example: Which line is easier for you to read?
white cat sat on the highway
or
white cat sat on the highway.
Naturally the second.
Profit number 1: Firstly, a person who reads one word for a fixation, is forced to first read the word, then attach it to the previous read and comprehend what was received. This is extra work for the brain. Even from an example (grotesque and simple) with a cat it is clear that it is easier to combine two groups of words than 5 single words.
Profit number 2: Eyes less tired. To make five hundred fixations per page or a hundred - things are completely different, in the second case it is incomparably simpler for the eye => it will be able not to tire any longer.
Profit # 3: A person who reads quickly (at this stage it is already possible to summarize: those who read quickly and read groups of words are actually synonyms) manage to follow the meaning of sentences, paragraphs and pages, while a person who is blunt for five seconds over one sentence and constantly jumping on the previous word to re-read, can not focus on the meaning strongly enough.
1) While reading, use a pointer (finger or pencil or knife - someone you like). Periodically accelerate the pace of movement of the pointer.
Experiment: Stand in front of a friend (NOT CHINESE), and ask him to imagine a circle in front of him and ask him to “describe” her with a look. You will see that the pupil will move along the trajectory of the polygon, similar to what is shown in the picture to the left.
If you give him a pen, and ask him to “describe” the circle with it and at the same time watch the handle with his gaze, you will get something more similar to the required shape.
That's the idea. Pointers allow us to make the right eye movements. He will move only in the right direction, and not jump back and forth.
Life: for sure you find yourself in a situation (on one of the sides), when the parents scold the child for reading with a finger on the page. “Learn to read correctly,” parents say. But they are fundamentally wrong. But they could benefit greatly from this. Just ask the child to move the finger a little faster on each new page (or paragraph). The eye will automatically maintain finger tempo and read faster.
2) Practice reading two lines at a time (using a pointer).
It seems impossible, but in reality it is not so difficult and VERY HELP when you need to look at and get a general idea and a preview (before a serious reading) of a large amount of material.
At the same time, you can practice with different movements of the pointer: diagonally, just at the bottom of the page, with a bend ... it is more convenient for everyone).
3) Practice turning pages quickly, trying to catch as many words as possible on each.
Experiment: drive with a friend by car (let's say he is driving) at a speed of 90 km / h. For a hundred meters before the 30 km / h mark, close the speedometer with something so that a friend drops speed to 30 "blindly." You will be surprised, but a friend will slow down to 50-60 km / hour.
The moral is: habit is a terrible thing. If your eye gets used to moving fast, then it will hardly return to the turtle’s speed later, with a “normal” reading.
4) Practice reading with a metronome (using a pointer). (or, in our time, with a software substitute for the metronome).
You set a certain beat, and each “beat” (click, squeak, what is there now in metronomes?) Follow the pointer (say, move from line to line, or move from the left margin of the page to the right). From time to time (each page or two ... choose for yourself) increase the frequency of the metronome. and try to keep up with it.
And finally, I would like to finish with three blocks of exercises that are recommended to be performed on an ongoing basis, at least 30 minutes a day for at least several weeks ... Then, when you read correctly, the skill will be maintained automatically.
I also attached a table to record the results. Lead it to really feel the progress.
Download the table .
1. Practice moving your eyes from the upper left corner of the page to the lower right. Objective: to teach the eyes to move independently and confidently.
2. Read five minutes (preferably material that will continue to be used), write the result in the table .
3. Practice turning over a hundred pages, spending about 2 seconds per page and trying, looking from top to bottom, to catch the maximum of words and meaning.
4. a) Read the text for 1 minute as quickly as possible, without worrying about learning.
b) Read 1 minute with an emphasis on understanding. Record the result in a table .
5. a) Choose some light material for perception. Read 1 minute, focus mainly on speed, but try to catch the most sense.
b) Try to improve the result of a) at 100 words per minute.
c) Try to improve the result from b) at 100 words per minute.
d) Try to improve the result from c) by 100 words per minute.
e) Try to improve the result from d) at 100 words per minute.
f) Read the text for 1 minute with an emphasis on understanding. Record the result in a table .
b) Try to keep within 4 minutes
c) Try to meet the three minutes
d) Try to keep within two minutes.
d) Read the text one minute with an emphasis on understanding. Record the result in a table.
b) Read the same text with an emphasis on understanding, try to meet the limit of 2000 words in 5 minutes.
c) Read one minute with an emphasis on understanding. Write the result in the table.
That's all :)
And if you want to ask about the specific results that I received (I abandoned this case six months ago, studied for the sake of curiosity, but now writing the article inspired me to take it up again), then, as I recall, it was about 500 words per minute in Russian and about 150-200 in English. But I didn't hang around that much. So this is not even close to the limit ... Oh, yes, in 2003, the world speed reading record was 3,850 words per minute (record holder: Sean Adam, USA).
And finally, illogical link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWzPztkzGFk
No relation to fast reading, just awesome song.
The idea described in the post appeared a long time ago (there is a story under the cut), in the form in which I will tell it, for the most part it is presented in the wonderful books of Tony Buzan Use You Head and The Speed Reading Book (the last is a lot of water).
Fasting affects the problems of speed of reading, understanding of the text, as well as methods for significant improvement of both.
Written by the user cympak . Dedicated to all who read a lot: whether it is business documents, art works or articles on Habrés like this.
')
Before proceeding to the most important, I ask you to take a test of six questions for Yes / No.
1. Reading at a speed of over 1000 words per minute is impossible?
2. Slow reading speeds contribute to a better understanding of the text?
3. To skip words while reading is a bad habit that impairs text understanding?
4. By default, we all read with the “natural” speed for us, and therefore the best?
5. If you do not understand a word or sentence, is it better to re-read it and understand?
6. Are your eyes in constant motion while reading?
For the results and, finally, interesting things, welcome under cat.
Answer NO to all questions :) If you answered at least one question YES, then you will learn something interesting from this article. The rest already know the topic and can go directly to the comments :)
Plan.
Preface.
I. History of fast reading.
Ii. The key to everything is eye movement (what is good and what is bad).
Iii. Exercises and techniques.
FOREWORD.
Many factors influence the quality and speed of reading, I cannot tell about all of them in one habr post. Therefore, here I focused on the methodology and physiology of reading.I will not talk about such (quite important) things as motivation or creating a comfortable working environment . And I do not talk about the methods of memorizing information. This is such an extensive topic, that perhaps I will dedicate a separate habratopic to it.
Here I focused a little on the other.
I. HISTORY OF QUICKLING.
During the First World War, the British Air Force pilots encountered a problem: at high speed, not everyone can instantly count the number of enemy aircraft, and sometimes during a battle it is even difficult to have time to consider whether your aircraft is flying or enemy.Then the wise command organized attention-raising courses for combat pilots. It looked like this: the Pilot sat down in front of the tachistoscope and for a short time he was shown photos of his and others' aircraft. Over time, the display of each photo decreased, and in the end it turned out that even if the photo (large enough) is shown for one five-hundredth (1/500) second, a person can still catch it.
Later this discovery was decided to be used for civilian purposes, namely: in the course of increasing attention when reading. With the same tachistoscope, people were shown words for short periods of time, then a couple of words, then four words, reducing the time for displaying one slide to the same one five hundredth second, and people could still catch and recognize all four words.
Now, of course, there is no such training, there are more humane methods, but the idea is still based on the same thing: a person can pick up words quickly, and not one at a time, but in groups. But, let's order.
Ii. PART TWO, THE MOST IMPORTANT.
Experiment: ask your friend to show on the leaflet the movement of the eye while reading. A friend will depict something like this, and the movement will be uniform and continuous:
And it will be completely wrong. In fact, the movement of the eye when reading is not at all uniform. I think you know that on a fixed object the human eye can focus only if the eye itself is fixed (guess what the rule is for moving objects). The text in the book is clearly motionless. Therefore, the eye movement in a simplified form (within the line) looks more like this:
I will use the word “fixation” because I have not found anything more appropriate in Russian.
Thus, we stop at the word, read it and move on to the next word. This happens quite quickly, so it seems to us that the eye moves evenly. The transition from word to word is very fast, its time, we will assume, is statistically zero.
The picture above is a simplified version, even idealized. In fact, almost all of you (since this is new to all of you) read more like this:
It seems that this person ^^^ has no chance to learn to read quickly and accurately. But no, all problems can be completely solved.
1. Returning to the previous word is not necessary for understanding, 90% of such returns are made by the reader only because it * seems * to him * that he did not understand or did not catch the word. In the remaining 10%, he didn’t really catch it, because it does not make sense in the context of the sentence.
2. The time of each fixation can be reduced to 1/4 second. Do not worry, this is not too short a time, because the eye can pick up words in 1/500 of a second (but we cannot read so quickly, because the brain will not keep pace with the eye).
3. Each fixation may include not one, but several words (with sufficient training - do not believe it - even a couple of lines at a time).
Let's talk about the third paragraph (a few words for fixing), because this is our key to quick reading. It looks like this:
At first, this may seem complicated or unnecessary. However, in fact, in this way of reading there is nothing but pluses.
Example: Which line is easier for you to read?
white cat sat on the highway
or
white cat sat on the highway.
Naturally the second.
Profit number 1: Firstly, a person who reads one word for a fixation, is forced to first read the word, then attach it to the previous read and comprehend what was received. This is extra work for the brain. Even from an example (grotesque and simple) with a cat it is clear that it is easier to combine two groups of words than 5 single words.
Profit number 2: Eyes less tired. To make five hundred fixations per page or a hundred - things are completely different, in the second case it is incomparably simpler for the eye => it will be able not to tire any longer.
Profit # 3: A person who reads quickly (at this stage it is already possible to summarize: those who read quickly and read groups of words are actually synonyms) manage to follow the meaning of sentences, paragraphs and pages, while a person who is blunt for five seconds over one sentence and constantly jumping on the previous word to re-read, can not focus on the meaning strongly enough.
Iii. EXERCISES AND RECEPTIONS.
Now we know that fast reading (naturally, correct) CONTRIBUTES to a better assimilation of the text. Moving from theory to practice.1) While reading, use a pointer (finger or pencil or knife - someone you like). Periodically accelerate the pace of movement of the pointer.
Experiment: Stand in front of a friend (NOT CHINESE), and ask him to imagine a circle in front of him and ask him to “describe” her with a look. You will see that the pupil will move along the trajectory of the polygon, similar to what is shown in the picture to the left.
If you give him a pen, and ask him to “describe” the circle with it and at the same time watch the handle with his gaze, you will get something more similar to the required shape.
That's the idea. Pointers allow us to make the right eye movements. He will move only in the right direction, and not jump back and forth.
Life: for sure you find yourself in a situation (on one of the sides), when the parents scold the child for reading with a finger on the page. “Learn to read correctly,” parents say. But they are fundamentally wrong. But they could benefit greatly from this. Just ask the child to move the finger a little faster on each new page (or paragraph). The eye will automatically maintain finger tempo and read faster.
2) Practice reading two lines at a time (using a pointer).
It seems impossible, but in reality it is not so difficult and VERY HELP when you need to look at and get a general idea and a preview (before a serious reading) of a large amount of material.
At the same time, you can practice with different movements of the pointer: diagonally, just at the bottom of the page, with a bend ... it is more convenient for everyone).
3) Practice turning pages quickly, trying to catch as many words as possible on each.
Experiment: drive with a friend by car (let's say he is driving) at a speed of 90 km / h. For a hundred meters before the 30 km / h mark, close the speedometer with something so that a friend drops speed to 30 "blindly." You will be surprised, but a friend will slow down to 50-60 km / hour.
The moral is: habit is a terrible thing. If your eye gets used to moving fast, then it will hardly return to the turtle’s speed later, with a “normal” reading.
4) Practice reading with a metronome (using a pointer). (or, in our time, with a software substitute for the metronome).
You set a certain beat, and each “beat” (click, squeak, what is there now in metronomes?) Follow the pointer (say, move from line to line, or move from the left margin of the page to the right). From time to time (each page or two ... choose for yourself) increase the frequency of the metronome. and try to keep up with it.
And finally, I would like to finish with three blocks of exercises that are recommended to be performed on an ongoing basis, at least 30 minutes a day for at least several weeks ... Then, when you read correctly, the skill will be maintained automatically.
I also attached a table to record the results. Lead it to really feel the progress.
Download the table .
Basic exercises.
(it is recommended, if possible, to use texts that are different, but of the same level of complexity, for example, from one book)1. Practice moving your eyes from the upper left corner of the page to the lower right. Objective: to teach the eyes to move independently and confidently.
2. Read five minutes (preferably material that will continue to be used), write the result in the table .
3. Practice turning over a hundred pages, spending about 2 seconds per page and trying, looking from top to bottom, to catch the maximum of words and meaning.
4. a) Read the text for 1 minute as quickly as possible, without worrying about learning.
b) Read 1 minute with an emphasis on understanding. Record the result in a table .
5. a) Choose some light material for perception. Read 1 minute, focus mainly on speed, but try to catch the most sense.
b) Try to improve the result of a) at 100 words per minute.
c) Try to improve the result from b) at 100 words per minute.
d) Try to improve the result from c) by 100 words per minute.
e) Try to improve the result from d) at 100 words per minute.
f) Read the text for 1 minute with an emphasis on understanding. Record the result in a table .
Advanced exercises №1
a) Use some simple material. Using the pointer (finger, pencil) read, trying to keep within the standard 2000 words in 5 minutes.b) Try to keep within 4 minutes
c) Try to meet the three minutes
d) Try to keep within two minutes.
d) Read the text one minute with an emphasis on understanding. Record the result in a table.
Advanced Exercise # 2
a) Using a pointer, view a book for a minute, spending approximately 4 seconds per page.b) Read the same text with an emphasis on understanding, try to meet the limit of 2000 words in 5 minutes.
c) Read one minute with an emphasis on understanding. Write the result in the table.
That's all :)
And if you want to ask about the specific results that I received (I abandoned this case six months ago, studied for the sake of curiosity, but now writing the article inspired me to take it up again), then, as I recall, it was about 500 words per minute in Russian and about 150-200 in English. But I didn't hang around that much. So this is not even close to the limit ... Oh, yes, in 2003, the world speed reading record was 3,850 words per minute (record holder: Sean Adam, USA).
And finally, illogical link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWzPztkzGFk
No relation to fast reading, just awesome song.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/82839/
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