Speed reading

Years ago I knew a girl who could glance at a book and know every fact in it. We would ask her questions, that to us seemed impossible to answer - but each time she managed to recall every fact precisely. Everyone said that she had a photographic memory. It would seem so for she was one of those people who seemed to get 100% in a test or occasionally 99 or 98% - certainly much more than the rest of us.

The other week there was a programme on television about speed reading and I began to wonder whether, in fact, the girl I knew somehow had mastered this technique. In speed reading it is said that knowledge is fast tracked to the short term memory where it is retained for very short periods (if you are lucky a few short weeks). It is worth testing out for fun .... the emphasis is on speed so you don't actually read the words you allow your brain to wash over the page. Apparently this is often done by placing a hand at the top of the page - opening the fingers and folding the smaller ones onto the palm of the hand. The eyes then follow the fingers as the hand is lightly moved from the top to the bottom of the page. Begin quite slowly and gently speed up - all the while keeping the eyes on the page at the point where the fingers are moving downwards.

It may well be linked to the fact that once we have attained a certain level of reading, our brains can process words without us reading them. This is an example that has done the email circuits - you may well have received a copy of this mail or one similar to it:

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!

Psas Ti ON !