AlexK’s Blog
Jun 08
Been busy the last couple of weeks developing an activation technique which I believe will help those who have trouble with comprehension. I’ve been working on this because so many students who participate in my class complain most of all of not being able to comprehend what they are reading. They struggle with this with [...] [...more]
Posted: under Persistence, PhotoRead, Photoreading, comprehension, reading.
Tags: Photoreading, reading comprehension, speed reading
Been busy the last couple of weeks developing an activation technique which I believe will help those who have trouble with comprehension. I’ve been working on this because so many students who participate in my class complain most of all of not being able to comprehend what they are reading. They struggle with this with traditional reading and hope that PhotoReading will help them.
It seems to me that many who look for ways to read faster with techniques like PhotoReading are hoping speed will help them comprehend what they are reading faster. Comprehension isn’t about reading it’s a way of thinking.
PhotoReading can and does help with comprehension however we still have the initial hurdle of activating enough. Too many give up before they are done. Those who have difficulty with comprehension stop the activation process way too soon. Usually on the first activation.
Since comprehension is a way of thinking, I’ve been working on a way to teach that way of thinking. I’ll hope to present it at my next PhotoReading class. I’ve been devising an activation process that I believe will help leverage comprehension. For now I simply refer to it as KL Activation. I am hoping that it will be the switch that gets them activating.
© Alex K Viefhaus June 2009
Jul 11
Someone asked me a terrific question today.
There is a theory that we do not absorb as well when we read from a screen as we do when reading from a book. Thought you would have some input re this.
And here is my reply.
Absolutely true we don’t absorb as well when we read from a computer [...] [...more]
Posted: under Photoreading, comprehension, reading.
Someone asked me a terrific question today.
- There is a theory that we do not absorb as well when we read from a screen as we do when reading from a book. Thought you would have some input re this.
And here is my reply.
Absolutely true we don’t absorb as well when we read from a computer screen.. Not really a theory either Jacob Nielsen has been testing it since the mid 1990. He originally found that we read 25% slower and in 2005 readability improved by 5%. Most readers only skim and marketers can take advantage of reading hot spots. That is where people actually read. If you want to know more about this I suggest you check out the useit website.
I’ve noticed that it has a significant impact on print reading too. When I first got seriously involved with reading in 2002 the statistics floating around was an average speed of 230 words a minute. Now I keep coming across papers that say the average speed is 190 word per minute average. These statistics have been reported for England, USA, Canada and in my class I find that most people read 1.25 pages in three minutes which is consistent with 190 words a minute.
I believe this drop in reading speed is caused by the fact that we spend so much time computer reading. The poor comprehension of what we read from a monitor carries over to paper reading.
The reason why comprehension is so poor is skimming is not reading and is not an effective technique for picking up all the important information. This is where most people find speed reading systems let them down. As speed reading is an attempt to push the eyeballs faster across a page it still works with the primary working memory as one would with elementary reading.
So one is handicapped by the conscious minds limited ability to handle more than 7 plus or minus 2 bits of information a second. You need to be able to cluster ideas to use that limited capacity.
The second problem with skimming and speed reading because you are working with the primary working memory, is you don’t have enough time to put the information into long term memory. In my view at best it lands in mid term memory. Some believe it is only in the short term memory yet to me it does last a bit longer than that. It never satisfied me because it seemed inaccurate because I believed speed readers must get a bit more out of it than that otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to speed read at all. A mid term memory has recently been identified and that is about 24 hours after that the mind dumps the information as unimportant. To my understanding this is more the speed readers experience.
The lament I hear is just about everything gained from speed reading is quickly forgotten. All speed readers I have spoken with have told me that they often have to re-read what they had previously speed read because they forgot the information. The problem is it happens again when they speed read it again.
We did hope that the faster computers would eliminate the eye fatigue that come from looking at a computer screen However this has not yet been the case. That’s why many people prefer to print out what they read and why we should take comments on a forum, email, chatrooms, forum and the like with a grain of salt. In the effort to read from the monitor the person my simply have skimmed over a message and missed a significant point and misunderstood the communication.
Coming onto the market are e-book readers These will be a significant reduction in paper waste once they gain acceptance. The screen is more like printed paper and since the screen doesn’t have to constantly refresh it is a lot easier on the eyes. I recently bought one and found I was able to read 3 books in the hour and I find it difficult to read that many on a computer.
One of the main problems with skimming is the comprehension suffers and as that is what speed reading is, skimming, we often miss significant cues and miss the meaning of the text we read. This also causes confusion and costs in other ways. Anything faster than 800 wpm is skimming and not reading and no one who teaches reading will advertise that they can teach you to read at 1000 to 25,000 words a minute because you cannot read faster than 800 words a minute.
With PhotoReading we teach people to PhotoRead at 25,000 words a minute (it’s actually a lot faster on computer screen). PhotoReading is not reading. PhotoReading is different to speed reading because we aim to absorb all the information by placing the information into the long term memory first. Through activation we gain the conscious comprehension in 1/3rd the time of traditional reading.
PhotoReading is a system. A system that uses the whole mind for reading. The system allows a beginner to get their reading done in 1/3 the time. Experienced PhotoReaders manage it in 1/5th or even 1/10th the time.
If you’re in Australia and would like to learn PhotoReading see my schedule.
© Alex Viefhaus July 2008
Jun 19
I learned how to PhotoRead but I suck at activation
Lets check your activation technique and discuss some of the experiences you might have had.
Begin your activation by revisiting step one of the system. This is probably more important than most people realise and often overlooked. Check in with your purpose regularly make sure you are [...] [...more]
Posted: under Activation, PhotoRead, Photoreading, Purpose, comprehension, confusion, expectation, frustration, motivation.
I learned how to PhotoRead but I suck at activation
Lets check your activation technique and discuss some of the experiences you might have had.
Begin your activation by revisiting step one of the system. This is probably more important than most people realise and often overlooked. Check in with your purpose regularly make sure you are on track. Then select one of your questions and review your trigger word list. From there you want to select the first question you want answered.
Remembering that the book was written by a human who wanted to pass on information imagine that you are entering into a conversation with that author. You are about to ask them a question. As look for the answers to your questions you will also find other questions coming to mind. If your question hasn’t been answered write the new question down.
As you find answers you may want to mind map them. Its very easy to dismiss the results of your first activations. You may feel like you’re not really getting anything and get ready to quit for the old fashioned way of reading. Before you do that lets consider this.
When you begin reading you just read. You hope information build as you follow word for word what the author has written. In 10 minutes you may have finished the first chapter. How much do you really know? Is that even important information in relation to your purpose or studying?
The purpose of activation is to build trust in your body mind connection. How often have you set out to learn something only to realise you already knew most of what is being taught? An interesting experience my students often have. “I discovered something else I want to know more about and my original question turned out not important.
It saddens me when beginners negate this experience. I think its brilliant and yet they think no, no its not right. I should be able to form the perfect question in the first place. In my mind it was the perfect question. It got them started and lead them to the next question that they wanted answered even more. Isn’t the next question always more important than the one that was before it? Its brilliant it got the ball rolling. You started a conversation with the author. The more you do use the PhotoReading system the better you get at it naturally and you learn to recognise you already know the answers.
It’s the same when they say to me. I did badly. I ran out of questions but felt I was missing something so I rapid read to check and sure enough that I found that very important piece of information that I missed. I am no good at activation.
What? No good at activation?
What you did was activation. It was listening to that feeling, thinking, knowing, small voice within that told you, you were missing something. It didn’t help you form a question and yet guided you to rapid read to find the answer. That’s how you activate, you follow your gut and strengthen your body mind connection. That something “wasn’t right” is a powerful activation signal that your body mind has given you and you write it off?
My suggestion is make note of it and mentally tell yourself that in future you expect to pull that information during your activation layers. Your body and mind has done everything right. It might have taken longer this time and will always take longer if you write off this very special communication you just had from your body and mind.
If you want to perfect your PhotoReading skills take every experience as just that an experience. Its neither good nor bad. An experience is something to build on. The better you leave behind the judgment and negative self talk the sooner you will be able to recognise yourself as a proficient PhotoReader. See my post on Noticing even small gains.
© Alex K Viefhaus
Jul 22
We never imagined the amount we reading the www would provide. Our traditional approach to reading doesn’t work. There simply isn’t enough time read. We need to be even more selective in our reading than ever before.
Since 2000 I’ve noticed that the average reading speed has slowed down. In the 1990’s the average reading speed [...] [...more]
Posted: under comprehension, reading.
We never imagined the amount we reading the www would provide. Our traditional approach to reading doesn’t work. There simply isn’t enough time read. We need to be even more selective in our reading than ever before.
Since 2000 I’ve noticed that the average reading speed has slowed down. In the 1990’s the average reading speed was reportedly 230 words a minute. Since 2005 I’ve noticed that the average is given at 190 WPM.
Jakob Nielsen recorded that we read at least 25% slower on a computer screen than from the printed page. Not only that he also noticed that we skim, we don’t actually read from the computer screen. It makes me wonder how much this style of reading affects our comprehension in general and not just our speed.
The research by Nielsen was from 1997 and our paper based reading average dropped by 40 words a minute since then. So I believe the impact of computer reading is slowing us down with the printed page as well.
US and Canadian research has found that 48% of their population cannot even read the instruction on medications. And more than 50% of students entering college don’t even have a ninth grade reading level. How they hope to complete college they don’t know because those leaving haven’t improved by much.
The problem is noted by those in power and our schools have introduce more reading programs. In the past the student was left to their own devices after learning to read in elementary school. On entering high school they had to discover their own way of improving speed and comprehension.
Is our reading poor or is comprehension the problem?
With the amount of reading and access to computers it must be surprising that our reading and comprehension ability is so poor. I notice how much slower and tedious it is to read on a computer screen. The art of skimming has it’s benefits, if you are a proactive reader reader to begin with.
How can you be sure you get the information you need when skimming? Some students have it down to an art to select passages and information from various pages on the web to ‘write” reports, assignments and essays but the question remains do they actually benefit from the exercise of skimming?
The disadvantage of skimming is that it is done purely with the conscious mind. Too much of what we see is forgotten because it wasn’t read it in the first place. Consciously only bits and pieces are recognised. Full reading is better for comprehension, thinking, connect ideas to what we understand and long term memory.
So skimming alone doesn’t work.
I’m not suggesting that you return to the slow and tedious process of reading online word for word. PhotoRead and be a proactive reader.
We never imagined the amount we reading the www would provide. It stands to reason our approach to reading doesn’t work. There simply isn’t enough time read everything with the traditional approach.
© Alex Viefhaus
Jan 17
When we learn something new. We start out not knowing something and not having any ability in that skill. Then we set about learning it. Our experience as we learn it is still slightly short of our expectation. Then we take away that skill at the end of the course and we have expectation that [...] [...more]
Posted: under Activation, Blip page, PhotoRead, Photoreading, comprehension, learning, learning curve.
When we learn something new. We start out not knowing something and not having any ability in that skill. Then we set about learning it. Our experience as we learn it is still slightly short of our expectation. Then we take away that skill at the end of the course and we have expectation that is higher still than out current skills. At the same time, while we know what to do, it is not what we know we are capable of. It’s not what we did in the during learning or we felt we did far worse than we give ourselves credit for. We expected that our skill would be even higher than it is at that point in time. The distance between our ability and our expectations is at it’s greatest.
This can create confusion or frustration. Frustration asks, ‘What am I doing wrong? Why isn’t it working? I can’t do it there is no point. I am hopeless. I give up.’ It’s like facing a wall not realising you can change direction only if you change your thinking.
Confusion looks at, ‘What can I do? What is working? What if I keep trying? There is a way because this is the natural learning curve and I did it at least partly and it can get better than this. What can I do to stay motivated?’
Look for ways to stay motivated. Simplify the actions and give yourself more time. One of the things that will happen when you are out on your own is the first couple of 20 minute activations are more confusing and seem unsuccessful compared to a live seminar activation. Look at it logically. There you spent 2 days honing your skill learning it testing it step by step and had someone to bounce your purpose off. The successes you had were because of the work you did before. When you get home you don’t have that, you don’t have someone to press you to check your purpose works. You don’t have the time keeper, you’re riding on your own. And if you did it with just the self-study course you also need to be the timekeeper right from the start.
So, understand the first two or three activations can seem sluggish and slow for a beginner and yet that’s only 40 minutes if you used a timer set for 20-minutes each. Remembering that your old reading style takes can take up to 10 hours for a book and most readers would be happy just to double their reading speed and get their reading done in 5 hours you haven’t even spent that much time with the book. Give it an extra activation or four. Even with six 20 minute activations you will have only spent 2 hours with the book. You haven’t finished activating until you’ve finished and get that sense of being finished. Knowing what you need and want to know. So in the beginning a book can take 2 to 3 hours where it used to take 10. That’s 1/3rd or 1/5th the time it used to take. Just don’t short change yourself on the activation steps because nothing seems to be happening at first. Drop the little bits you find onto a mind map and continue to build it and in less time than traditional reading you’re done.
One other thing that often holds people back is the lack of a purpose. Discover your purpose you discover your motivation. That’s a topic for another time.
If you’ve put PhotoReading aside for a while and want to get back into it. Just PhotoRead 2 to 3 books a day for a couple of weeks. One or two of those books will probably get you curious to know more. Activate those books playfully. Using the 5 day test. Yes give yourself the space to fail the first few times.
© Alex Viefhaus January 2007
