85 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
85 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Reading Methods & RSVP"
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date: 2020-02-13T21:57:28-05:00
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draft: false
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author: Amolith
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description: Methods we unconsciously use when reading and ways to increase both speed and comprehension
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cover: /assets/pngs/book.png
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categories:
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- Technology
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tags:
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- Productivity
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- Reading
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- TIL
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---
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## Reading methods
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Today, I learned that there are three primary ways people read. The
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first and most common is *mental reading* and this is when you "say" the
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words in your head as if you were speaking them.[^1] I find this useful
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when writing because it's as if I'm *actually* speaking them; picking
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out sentences and phrases that don't sound quite right is easier. In
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writing courses, the instructor's advice is often to read your work
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aloud and see how it sounds as mistakes, word choices, and grammatical
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errors are typically much more prominent. Personally, I find doing it in
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my head sufficient though. Mental reading is the slowest method but also
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where your comprehension is at its peak; you are forced to slow down and
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that gives your brain more time to process the information it's being
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fed. The average speed is 250 WPM.[^2]
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The second method is called *auditory reading* and it's just listening
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to words spoken by a person or a TTS[^3] engine. Because listening is
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generally more passive, it's much easier to completely miss individual
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words while still understanding the meaning of the phrase or passage.
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This is significantly faster than mental reading at an average of around
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450 WPM. However, comprehension takes a hit because you have less time
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to process the information.
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*Visual reading* is the last and fastest. The concept may be kind of
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hard to grasp at first but the next paragraph about Stutter will
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hopefully make it clearer. Visual reading is understanding the meaning
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of the word without having to hear it or say it in your head,
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recognising it based on its shape and the letters it's comprised of.
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Comprehension is at its lowest here but speed peaks. The *average*
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reader who uses this method can consume 700 words per minute. To put
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that in perspective, it's 2.8x faster than mental reading. While
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comprehension is low, it is not nonexistent. The best way to understand
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what I mean is to try it for yourself.
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**Note:** [Some
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sources](https://steemit.com/content/@jacor/speed-reading-a-wonderful-skill-to-obtain)
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say that, with practise and when done correctly, there is no difference
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in comprehension, rather the opposite; you retain information
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*significantly* better when speed reading properly. This is where I
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would recommend actually doing it and deciding for yourself.
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## Stutter
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[Stutter](https://github.com/jamestomasino/stutter) is a Firefox and
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Chrome extension that brings RSVP[^4] to your browser and lets you
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develop visual reading skills. It specifically makes use of *peripheral
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reading* and displays a single word at time but moves through them at
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rapid pace. It highlights a single character of the current word just to
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the left of the centre. This is because a word can usually be recognised
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by its first few characters; the rest aren't as important. The highlight
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remains in a fixed position so you never have to move your eyes. Because
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of that, Stutter is able to display new words much more quickly; the
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average reader can usually comfortably start at 500 WPM but it is
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possible to reach speeds of over 1200 WPM with regular practise. I
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haven't gotten that far yet :wink:
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For more information on speed reading, the [Wikipedia
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page](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading) (where I got most of my
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information) is really interesting and well-worth a read.
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## Edits
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* [@caltlgin](https://masto.nixnet.xyz/@caltlgin) recommended
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[flrdr,](https://octobanana.com/software/fltrdr) a TUI tool for
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reading with RSVP
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[^1]: The technical term is
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*[subvocalisation](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocalization)*
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[^2]: Words per minute
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[^3]: [Text-to-speech](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_synthesis)
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[^4]: *[Rapid serial visual
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presentation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_serial_visual_presentation)*
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