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How to Read Faster?
Introduction
Physiological limits cannot be changed, but they can be approached through training.
Two bottlenecks
The speed at which the human eye recognizes information
- When reading text, the images seen by the eyes need to be recognized by the brain in order to be understood.
- The retina of the eye can only cover about 1 degree in front of the eye.
How big is an angle of 1 degree?
You straighten your arm and raise your index finger. The width of your index finger is about 1 degree angle. In other words, if you hold the book so far away, you can probably see 4 to 5 Chinese characters clearly at one time. If you hold the book closer, you can only see 3 characters.
The bandwidth of the human brain to receive information
- 100-200 bits of information are received in 1 second, about 12-25 Chinese characters.
Physiological limits cannot be changed, but they can be approached through training.
How to train to break through bottlenecks
Adjust book position
Since the effective viewing angle for reading is only 1 degree, placing the book further away from the habitual distance can increase the reading speed by 30%.
Use pronunciation to assist reading
Practice eye and brain synchronization.
- Use voice assistance (silent reading) to assist eye movement and brain coordination.
- When you see a familiar phrase, you can recognize it by reading two syllables and move on to the next one.
Learn to skip reading
No need to read word for word. Experiments show that even if 10% of the text is cut out from a paragraph, basically all the information can be restored.
- Don't stop when you encounter a word you don't know, just jump to it.