How to Absorb Books 3x Faster in 10 mins (using actual science)

Python Programmer2023-11-29

speed reading#how to speed read#science of speed reading#speed reading research

53K views|9 months ago

💫 Short Summary

The video explores the science of speed reading, delving into research from the last 50 years to determine if there are methods to read and understand at superhuman speeds. The key points include the limitations of peripheral vision for reading, the importance of the inner voice in the comprehension process, and the ethical implications of speed reading. Research suggests that while some techniques may improve reading speed, comprehension is a crucial factor that cannot be sacrificed.

✨ Highlights

📊 Transcript

✦

The world speed reading champion, Anne Jones, read the 784-page book 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' in 47 minutes, demonstrating a reading rate of over 4,200 words per minute.

00:00

Anne Jones, the World Speed Reading Champion, read the final Harry Potter book, which had just arrived, in 47 minutes.

Her reading speed was over 4,200 words per minute, while the typical reading speed for a college-educated adult is between 200 and 400 words per minute.

✦

Peripheral vision is limited for reading, as the foveal viewing area is small, and the majority of visual information outside this area is blurry and impossible to read.

02:05

Peripheral vision for reading is limited due to the small foveal viewing area

Most visual information outside the foveal area is blurry and impossible to read

The eye has two types of light sensitive neural receptors: cones for high definition color vision and detail, and rods for black and white vision, but with less detail

✦

Research suggests that silencing the inner voice while reading may not necessarily improve speed as the inner voice plays a role in comprehension.

04:22

Studies show that eliminating or minimizing the inner voice results in decreased comprehension.

Subvocalization could help with word recognition and increase reading speed.

✦

Research indicates that the ability to reread parts of the text when necessary is crucial for reading comprehension, suggesting a trade-off between speed and comprehension.

06:10

Study shows the relationship between regressions and reading comprehension

Reading without the ability to reread parts of the text decreases comprehension accuracy

Saccades, the quick eye movements between words, are crucial for understanding the text

The eye makes several fixations as it jumps along a line of text

✦

Reading speed can be increased by practicing language processing skills, as faster and more familiar word recognition enhances reading speed.

08:28

Familiarity with words and increased vocabulary can lead to skipping over some words and shorter fixations

Skimming for important information can be a useful strategy but may lead to a cost in comprehension

Approaching skimming systematically by looking at the table of contents, headings, and first and last paragraphs of each section

✦

The speaker speculates that super fast readers may have advanced language processing abilities that allow them to comprehend text at high speeds.

10:07

Super fast readers are able to skim the material at rapid rates and comprehend it

The speaker believes that advanced language processing is the key to understanding how super fast readers are able to comprehend text at high speeds

00:00 on the 21st of July 2007 World

00:03 speedreading Champion Anne Jones took

00:06 her place at a desk in a famous London

00:08 Bookshop the final installment of Harry

00:11 Potter the Deathly Hallows had just

00:13 arrived from the publisher and the world

00:15 was waiting to find out how the story

00:17 ended an had been asked to read it as

00:19 quickly as possible by a newspaper so

00:21 that they could be the first to write a

00:23 review can you guess how long it took

00:25 her to read all 784 pages 4 7 minutes

00:31 that's a reading rate of over 4,200

00:33 words a minute or an entire page every 3

00:36 and 1/2

00:39 seconds can you read a page like this in

00:42 3 and 1/2

00:43 seconds

00:45 no neither can I just imagine the

00:48 possibilities if you could it would be

00:51 like magic but this wasn't magic speed

00:53 reading courses and techniques have

00:55 existed for decades but how can it be

00:57 possible when a typical reading speed of

00:59 a college educated adult lies between

01:02 200 and 400 words per minute can we

01:04 really believe that some people read 10

01:07 times faster and can anyone learn this

01:10 could you let's find out in this video

01:14 we're going to explore the science of

01:15 reading we'll look at research from the

01:17 last 50 years to see if there does exist

01:19 a magic method that will enable you to

01:21 read and understand at superhuman speeds

01:24 but I have to warn you controversy lurks

01:28 within some of the speed reading claims

01:31 let's get

01:32 going have you ever searched for speed

01:34 reading techniques if yes you'll

01:37 probably know the two most widely

01:38 recommended strategies to read faster

01:41 and if you haven't I'm about to tell you

01:44 can you guess what they

01:47 are instead of focusing on a few words

01:49 at once some people suggest using

01:51 peripheral vision to take in Far More

01:53 visual information perhaps as much as a

01:56 paragraph or even a page this clever

01:59 hack giv gives them the power to peruse

02:01 thousands of words per minute and it

02:03 makes a lot of sense so why don't we all

02:05 do it because it's biologically

02:07 impossible I might as well tell you that

02:09 to keep my fine physique I bench press a

02:12 Tesla Model y three times a day so this

02:16 paper explains it really well look at

02:19 this so pretty much anything outside of

02:21 the fobal viewing area is just too

02:24 blurry to read and the F viewing area is

02:28 really small it's about the width of

02:30 your thumb when you hold it at arms

02:31 length out from your eye so that the eye

02:35 has two types of light sensitive neural

02:36 receptors rods and cones I guess you've

02:39 probably heard of them but do you know

02:41 what they do cones are the High

02:42 Definition True Color sensors that work

02:44 better in bright light and can see

02:46 detail and color the rods are like an

02:49 old TV from the 1950s and can only see

02:52 in black and white cones are located

02:54 mainly in the fobil area with rods

02:56 generally outside Nature has optimized

02:59 how the system Works cones transmit

03:01 every detail they detect to the brain

03:04 information from the rods though is

03:05 pulled and then transmitted you can

03:08 think of it as a type of lossy file

03:10 compression like a grayscale JPEG detail

03:14 is not preserved anything falling onto

03:16 this part of the eye will be blurred and

03:19 if it's a word you won't be able to read

03:20 it research has shown that words become

03:23 impossible to make out at just 3° visual

03:25 angle away from the point of fixation

03:28 the suggestion that you can process

03:30 large amounts of text in a single glance

03:32 according to research is probably not

03:35 the case instead we need to look at

03:38 sacks they hold the answer do you know

03:41 what they are if not don't worry you

03:44 soon will but before that do you

03:46 remember I said there were two methods

03:47 that are widely recommended peripheral

03:49 vision is the first which isn't

03:52 particularly useful what about the

03:55 second you know it's that voice you hear

03:57 in your head when reading oh Giles you

03:59 are gorgeous uh no not that voice the

04:02 voice of the text here's mine Alice was

04:05 beginning to get very tired of sitting

04:07 by her sister on the bank some speed

04:09 reading advice tells us that to read

04:12 quickly we must silence this voice

04:15 because it limits our maximum reading

04:16 speed silencing it will set us free and

04:20 this seems plausible although in

04:22 practice it can be quite difficult

04:25 however if you look at the science and

04:26 the research these claims are

04:28 questionable why do you read it's to

04:31 understand to learn to comprehend I

04:33 think we can agree on that and the inner

04:35 voice plays an essential role in that

04:37 process how do we know several Studies

04:40 have shown it this excellent paper

04:42 summarizes dozens of them it highlights

04:45 Decades of research showing that

04:46 eliminating or minimizing the innervoice

04:49 results in decreased comprehension

04:51 there's also evidence that

04:52 subvocalization could play a role in

04:55 helping word recognition leading to

04:57 increased reading speed this page paper

04:59 by the same author hints at that very

05:02 possibility more research is needed to

05:04 fully understand the role of the inner

05:06 voice but from what we already know it's

05:09 important it helps you understand it's

05:11 your friend you don't know how happy

05:13 that makes me Giles as you can see some

05:15 of the advice given about speed reading

05:18 has very little evidence to support it

05:20 worse much of the evidence contradicts

05:22 some of the most popular advice do you

05:24 ever find that when you're reading you

05:26 occasionally have to move your eye back

05:28 over something to understand it properly

05:31 it's very common most people do it even

05:33 skilled readers and they're called

05:35 regressions a lot of speed reading

05:37 advice suggests you should train

05:38 yourself out of doing this as it slows

05:40 you down in fact there are speed reading

05:43 apps that attempt to completely

05:44 eradicate regression by using rapid

05:47 serial visual

05:48 presentation this is RSVP applied to

05:52 hamlets to be or not to be

05:55[Music]

05:58 cqu well done you've just read the whole

06:00 thing in 5 seconds moving wasn't it

06:04 research has been done into this as well

06:06 so what do you think could this be a

06:07 useful way of reading at extremely high

06:10 speeds well in 2014 a team from the

06:13 University of California San Diego put

06:15 it to the test they used a trailing mask

06:18 like this that reacted to the eye

06:20 position of the subject once the subject

06:22 made a forward sard away from a word it

06:25 was masked remaining so even if they

06:27 look back at it here the Asis show the

06:30 position of eye fixations what did they

06:32 find regressions are crucial to

06:34 understanding what we read here's what

06:36 the paper said our data showing the

06:38 relationship between regressions and

06:40 reading comprehension are the most

06:41 compelling evidence suggesting that

06:43 reading without the ability to reread

06:45 parts of the text when necessary

06:47 decreases comprehension accuracy what we

06:50 see here and it's hardly surprising is

06:52 that there always exists a trade-off

06:54 between speed and comprehension there

06:57 are methods that work and we are coming

06:59 to those remember I mentioned sards

07:01 earlier let's focus on those sards are

07:04 the quick eye movements you make as your

07:06 focus jumps between words while reading

07:08 a line of text understanding these will

07:10 help you read more effectively

07:12 scientists have spent over a 100 years

07:14 studying them and recently by using

07:16 high-speed video cameras connected to

07:18 computers they've discovered the ey

07:20 makes several fixations as it jumps

07:22 along a line of text it's not a smooth

07:25 process and it's attempting to place

07:26 words in the fial region each fixation

07:29 last around 250 milliseconds typically

07:32 each sack Ard takes 20 milliseconds and

07:34 during the entire process of IM movement

07:37 although your brain isn't reading it's

07:39 constantly processing the already seen

07:42 words can you guess what the key finding

07:45 from all this researches reading speed

07:47 is not limited by the ability of your

07:49 eye to move along the line of text or to

07:52 take in information it's cognitive

07:54 processing that slows you down

07:56 subvocalization and regression are both

07:59 both necessary to maintain a high level

08:01 of comprehension and are frequently used

08:03 by skilled

08:05 readers now I've done my research I've

08:08 seen what not to do can I speedread

08:11 let's put it to the test I'm going to

08:13 try to speedread the biography of Elon

08:15 Musk by Walter Isaacson here goes wish

08:18 me

08:22 luck oh that was good it's about Elon

08:25 Musk so how can you increase your

08:28 reading speed without sacrificing

08:30 comprehension by far the most important

08:33 factor for reading more quickly are your

08:35 language processing skills you need to

08:37 practice with language remember when we

08:39 were talking about sards and fixations

08:41 earlier research shows that fixations

08:44 are shorter for more familiar words and

08:46 some familiar words are skipped over

08:48 completely as your language processing

08:50 skills and vocabulary increase the

08:53 number of words familiar to you will go

08:55 up and so will your reading speed there

08:57 is a way of signific ific anly

08:59 increasing reading speed by two or

09:01 perhaps even three times but it does

09:03 come with a cost to comprehension

09:05 although it can be useful sometimes you

09:08 probably already do it but research

09:10 might be able to help you do it more

09:12 effectively it's skimming when skimming

09:15 you're usually looking to extract

09:17 important information from a text it's

09:19 often suggested that you should zigzag

09:21 your eyes across the page or columns but

09:23 research shows that this is a poor

09:25 strategy it's better to approach it

09:26 systematically if it's a book first look

09:28 at the table of contents to understand

09:30 the structure read headings the first

09:33 and last paragraph of each chapter and

09:35 if you're focusing on a particular

09:37 section the first and last sentence of

09:39 each

09:43[Music]

09:46 paragraph because the research doesn't

09:49 provide explanations into how super fast

09:51 readers like Anne Jones who I mentioned

09:53 at the start of the video are able to

09:55 read at such high speeds and this paper

09:58 which which I've used for a lot of the

09:59 research in the video it's an excellent

10:02 paper and there's a link in the

10:03 description acknowledges that and only

10:05 speculates as to how it might be

10:07 possible it says effective speed readers

10:09 appear to be intelligent people who

10:11 already know a great deal concerning the

10:13 topic that they're reading about and are

10:15 able to successfully skim the material

10:17 at rapid rates and accept the lower

10:19 comprehension that a company's skimming

10:21 but from what I've read about Superfast

10:23 readers there seems to be more going on

10:25 than that because I think for an

10:27 ordinary reader like me if I tried to

10:29 read at those speeds my comprehension

10:31 would go to zero so there's something

10:33 that these super fast readers are doing

10:35 that we don't completely understand and

10:37 I think it's likely to do with language

10:39 processing so work on your language

10:41 processing and read as much as you can

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💫 FAQs about This YouTube Video

1. What are the two most widely recommended strategies to read faster?

The two most widely recommended strategies to read faster are using peripheral vision to take in more visual information and silencing the voice in your head while reading. However, research suggests that these strategies may not be as effective as commonly believed.

2. Is it possible to read an entire page in 3.5 seconds using peripheral vision?

No, it is not possible to read an entire page in 3.5 seconds using peripheral vision. The foveal viewing area is very small, and anything outside of it is too blurry to read. Peripheral vision for reading is limited, and the claim that some people can read thousands of words per minute using this technique is not supported by research.

3. How do saccades and subvocalization affect reading speed?

Saccades, which are quick eye movements, and subvocalization, the voice in your head when reading, both play a role in reading speed and comprehension. Saccades allow the eyes to move quickly along a line of text, while subvocalization helps with word recognition and comprehension. Both are important for effective reading, and there is a natural trade-off between speed and comprehension.

4. What is the key finding regarding reading speed and eye movement?

The key finding is that reading speed is not limited by the ability of the eye to move along the line of text, but by cognitive processing. The constant processing of already seen words by the brain is what slows down reading speed. Subvocalization and regression are necessary for maintaining a high level of comprehension and are used by skilled readers.

5. How can reading speed be increased without sacrificing comprehension?

Reading speed can be increased without sacrificing comprehension by improving language processing skills. The more familiar a reader is with words, the faster their reading speed. However, there is a natural trade-off between speed and comprehension, and some techniques like skimming may result in a cost to comprehension.

6. What are the attributes of the Google data analytics professional certificate program?

The Google data analytics professional certificate program is designed for beginners, self-paced, and remote-friendly. It does not require any prior experience and claims that a person can be job ready in 6 months with just 10 hours a week. The program covers data cleaning, analysis, and visualization using various tools such as spreadsheets, SQL, R programming, and Tableau.

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