Practice (the more you use them the more natural the techniques become).
Simply by changing the distance that you hold your book you can improve the efficiency of your vision, reduce eye strain, fatigue and improve both speed and comprehension.
Skimming and scanning.
Use of a guide, once mastered, is one of the most important techniques in speed reading.
The flexibility to alter text to suit your own preferences.
We have a wider field of vision horizontally. From an evolutionary point of view, it was important for our hunter-gatherer ancestors to be sensitive to potential predators from either the left or right.
Cones support daytime vision and the perception of colour and are more densely packed in the centre of the macula region of the retina in a small pit called the fovea.
About 50 cm from your eyes.
80 per cent.
Comprehension is improved if you have a general idea of the structure of a page; making use of peripheral vision also helps you remember what you read and leads to a reduction of eyestrain, headaches, neck and back pain.
It is believed to control sleep, wakefulness, and the ability to consciously focus attention on something. In addition, the RAS acts as a filter, dampening down the effect of repeated stimuli.
Skimming differs from scanning in the important respect that it is less pre-directed.
Skimming is ideal for newspapers.
Being selective with your reading can multiply the time saved from reading faster by a factor of four.
When reading scientific papers, you generally only need to read the title and abstract.
Just read the title to see if it is relevant to continue, skim the contents and if you think it is important, read the executive summary.
Two of the following: adding up a column of figures in your head, scanning classified ads in a newspaper, finding a phone number in a printed directory, looking up a word in a dictionary, reading stock prices in the financial pages of a newspaper.
Focus on the page; reduce the duration of fixations; take in groups of words in meaningful chunks; only move forwards and avoid backskipping.
Using your finger as a guide has one major disadvantage, that the rest of your hand partially covers the page.
A knitting needle, chopstick, pen, pencil or even a conductor’s baton.
Asking questions before you begin enables your subconscious to go to work as soon as you open the book. You will be on the lookout for particular facts and will be more likely to spot relevant information.
Most information tends to be concentrated at the beginning and end of chapters.
Just jump over them and continue reading.
Images promote creativity and imagination. A central image is more interesting, keeps you focused, helps you concentrate, and gives your brain more stimulation.
The brain filters out the mundane and ordinary. Exaggeration makes things extraordinary.
If you miss a connection the chain breaks and it is very difficult to continue. The Method of Loci lets you carry on even if you miss one or more items in a list.
We naturally remember more from the start of a learning session and a reasonable amount from the end.