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<IMG SRC="8.gif" ALT="Chapter 8 - Video Acceleration">
<H2>Video Interface Acceleration</H2>
<H3>Maximizing reading speed and comprehension</H3>
<CITE>
"Step on it!"<BR>
"This is the vehicle's top speed."
<BR>
--- Terminator 2
</CITE>
<H3>Speed Limits</H3>
<H4>The Ceiling to your Success</H4>
Avoiding a highway chase in a lousy truck with a big tanker-trailer behind you
You would be in dire straits if you were chased by a T-1000 and your truck was
capable of mere sixty miles an hour Likewise, you are severely disadvantaged if
your reading speed is a bottleneck in your programme of success. All smart
cyborgs know how to speed through their problems. In this chapter you will learn
how to read a book at FTL - faster than light - warp speeds. Commander Data,
warp nine and engage!
<HR>
<H3>Speed Reading - The Basic Concepts</H3>
<H4>What your grade school teacher didn't tell you</H4>
Remember when you first learned how to read? You must have started off by
learning how to pronounce individual words, and then stringing them together by
reading aloud the entire sentence. Soon, you were told to "read to yourself,"
and that culminated in the subvocalization you experience today, when your mind
"silently" pronounces the words. This form of reading, subvocal reading, is
relatively slow. Unfortunately, the only way to minimize it is through practice.
If you're reading this chapter in order to speed through a certain book, you
will not be able to afford the time required for speed reading training.
Therefore, I will present a quick and dirty method of higher reading speed
first, and give you the proper training information at the end of the chapter.
But first, some information about the factors involved in reading speed.
<HR>
<H3>Achieving Mach Speeds</H3>
<H4>Breaking the Sound Barrier</H4>
As mentioned, pronouncing words while reading them slows you down. The worst
form of this is explicit vocalization, or actually reading the words out aloud.
Even the fastest talking person on this planet cannot read as quickly as person
who has broken the "sound barrier." Better, yet still considered slow, are the
readers who subvocalize. Subvocal readers may move their lips, or their tongue,
or parts of their speech system, without actually making any noises, yet this
physical movement puts a check on their speeds. Even the reader who silently
imagines each sound in the mind will be slow compared to the graphic-oriented
reader. To explain this concept, imagine that you are driving on a road, or
walking around in your house. You do not pronounce the name of every object you
see, nor do you consciously tell yourself what you are doing at all given
moments. If you did, it might drive you crazy! The only reason why you hear the
words when you read them, is because of habit. Words in themselves should not
elicit a sound. They are merely icons, or symbols, not unlike the way a set of
skull and crossbones automatically tell you that something is hazardous.
Graphic-oriented readers will be able to ascertain the information from the text
by "seeing" pictures in the mind's eye, instead of "hearing" the sounds.
Likewise, watching a movie is usually faster, and provides more information,
than hearing a story that is read out aloud. The only way to really cut down on
subvocalization is by reading so quickly that your mind does not have time to
form the sounds.
<P>
In order to be able to read quickly, you must avoid anything that slows you
down. The very first thing that will do just that, is lack of concentration. Be
sure you are focussed, and in a quiet place. Use maximum shielding. Be
comfortable in your chair, or on your bed. Ensure adequate lighting. If you wish
to do so, meditate before you begin your reading session. Minimize multi-tasking
by jotting down all the things that worry you, and just leave them alone for the
reading session. Forget all else. You cannot dwell on topics in your mind while
reading at the same time. Your mind will wander, and you will experience the
all-too-common phenomenon of not realising what you had read just moments ago,
and regressing to, or re-reading, previous text.
<P>
The number of eye "stops," or the number of times your eye focusses on certain
words while reading an entire line on a page, will determine the overall speed
at which you complete the reading of the line. High-speed readers generally make
between one and four stops per line, while low-speed readers may stop at every
word.
<P>
Finally, the number of stops you make per line is determined by the amount of
peripheral vision you are capable of, or the "width" of your vision span. If you
can see, and understand, a wider area of the text, you will take in more
information at any given moment. Likewise, speed-readers train themselves to
read multiple-lines simultaneously. For the time being, just understand that it
can be done.
<HR>
<H3>The CyberRead® Method - Rapid Reading Rapidly</H3>
<H4>Or the no-frills way to immediately increase reading speed</H4>
Acquire a sheet of transparent plastic. It should be relatively firm. Saran Wrap
will not do. The best material to use is a transparency sheet for overhead
projectors. Now, place the plastic sheet on top of a page of text. Pick a page
that is typical and representative of the bulk of the material you will have to
read. Take a permanent marker with a thin point, and a ruler, and draw a
vertical line about one-third the width of the text, from the left margin.
Repeat with the right margin. In this manner, you will have two vertical lines
running down the page, roughly dividing the text into three columns.
<P>
These two vertical lines represent your focal points. In other words, you are
only allowed two stops per line of text, and the two stops are where the lines
intersect the text. Unless the book you have to read is extremely wide, you
should be able to peripherally see all the text you need, per stop. If you have
a wide book, make three lines instead of two.
<P>
Now, be sure your mind is concentrated, and begin your reading session. Force
yourself to make the two stops, and not any more than that. Speed through the
text. At first, you may find that your comprehension drops even though your
speed has increased. If this happens, slow down a little. However, as long as
your mind doesn't wander, you will be able to take in much more information at
much higher speeds than you had thought possible. Don't slow down to the point
where you can subvocalize again. You should aim at speeds higher than that. In
any case, by reading faster, you will have created the opportunity for a review
reading later on. If the plastic sheet becomes unwieldy to handle, cut it down
so that it fits exactly on the page. You may have to adjust the lighting to
minimize reflections off the plastic.
<HR>
<H3>Higher Reading Effectiveness</H3>
To increase your comprehension level of the text, it is advisable to do a
"prescan" of the book before you actually begin reading the material. The
prescan is easily done. Simply read the front and back covers to get an idea of
what the book is really about. Next, check out the table of contents to see the
overall layout. This is the master plan for the book. See how the author
develops the ideas. Finally, look through the index if there is one. Consider
the index to be a complete checklist of all the important ideas in the book. If
something isn't in the index, it probably isn't very important anyway. You will
want to use the index at a later time to review the entire book.
<P>
Your prescan serves multiple functions. The primary objective is to give you an
overview of the book. Ask yourself whether or not you actually have to read the
book at all. Perhaps you were misled by the title or the description. Don't
waste your time reading the book if it contains very little material relevant to
your needs. Even if the book does contain important material, consider whether
or not the effort to read it would be worthwhile. Some books have such a poor
presentation format or writing style, it takes considerable effort to ascertain
the valuable information contained between the covers. The prescan allows you to
quickly determine if a book should be read, and allows you time to make another
selection if need be.
<P>
If you decide to go ahead and read the book, determine which sections of the
book deserve more attention. Sometimes it is not necessary to read the entire
volume from front to back, in order to extract the information you need. Of
course, the procedure in which you read the book depends on the genre of
literature you are perusing. Non-fiction can usually be read out of order, but
most works of fiction demand a strict chronological order from beginning to end.
When reading the book proper, start with the prefaces or introductions , and
look for important information that describes the overall theme of the book. The
introduction is usually the first chapter, or it may be an entirely separate
section altogether. Read these initial sections and try to locate the thesis for
the book. There is usually an argument the author is trying to make through the
book.
<P>
When you have finished all of this, read the book itself. You will have enough
background knowledge to guide you through the book. You should be able to tell
which points are important and which are not. In this manner, you won't waste
your efforts trying to understand irrelevant concepts. Always keep in mind the
book's thesis.
<P>
Finish the reading with the conclusion. At this stage, you should note any
discrepancies between the author's summary and what you understand regarding the
material. Pay attention, furthermore, to opinions that you have formed about the
book. Perhaps you disagree with certain arguments, or can provide more effective
ones. In many subjects, personal opinions are the focal point of the entire
schedule of instruction, and instructors may require you to describe them in
essays or class discussions. In any event, the concluding chapter should
summarize the book contents. You can complete the reading session by scanning
the index again, noting whether or not certain entries are listed.
<P>
Throughout the reading of the book, have your microcassette recorder, or pen and
paper, handy. Dictate, or write down, ideas that pop into your mind. These are
valuable for future use in essays or class discussions. The microcassette
recorder is more desirable for this purpose because it does not detract from
your reading as much as the use of pen and paper.
<HR>
<H3>CyberRead® Explained - The Reasoning Behind the Technique</H3>
<H4>To finger or not to finger, that is the question</H4>
Speed reading theory can be divided into two camps. On the one hand, there are
techniques that stress hand or finger movement. The placement of fingers on the
text serves as a marker for the eyes, and helps the reader keep track of the
focal location. The movement of the hand across the page then guides the eyes as
it flies over the words.
<P>
The other side of the coin has other theories that discourage the use of fingers
on the page. They consider the mechanical guidance a hinder to rapid reading.
Hands can cover up text which can otherwise be read via peripheral vision. Eyes
can also scan an entire page at much higher speeds than the hand can move across
it. The "hands-free" methods stress training the reader's vision capacity, per
se, without the need of incorporating the training of hands and fingers as well.
I have taken an intermediary approach with the CyberRead method. The use of
lined transparencies on the page take the best from both worlds. The vertical
lines provide the "crosshairs" to prevent losing the place in the text, while
avoiding the complications of the text being obscured. The only drawback lies in
the relatively cumbersome need to reposition the transparency on every page.
However, in time the reader will be able to dispense with the transparency
altogether, and reading with minimal eye-stops will become second nature.
Therefore, the lined-trasparency is to be considered a helping hand at this
early stage of development.
<HR>
<H3>CyberRead® Enhanced - Advanced Techniques</H3>
<H4>Turning yourself into a gigantic eyeball</H4>
I presented the CyberRead method above so that a student can use the information
immediately to accelerate reading speed, in the event of imminent demand for
knowledge of the book the next day. Advanced training for speed reading can be
accomplished when the reader has more time on his or her hands.
<P>
The very first skill we must develop is the ability to read in more text at
every glance. In essence, this calls for the expansion of peripheral vision.
Some rapid reading books provide the learner with various columns of letters,
and require the reader to focus on the center of the column while attempting to
determine the outermost letters. This is very effective, yet extremely boring
when the exercise is repeated with the same columns of letters, ad nauseum. A
more interesting approach is to actually use reading material for practise.
Take another sheet of transparent plastic, and this time draw a vertical line
down the centre of the plastic. Take this sheet and place it on top of a column
in a newspaper or magazine. Make sure the column is narrow enough for you to be
able to read all the text without shifting the eyes from the centre. The
exercise simply requires you to read the column from top to bottom, keeping your
eyes on the centre line. Fight the natural urge to look from side to side. In
time, you will be able to minimize and eliminate unnecessary side-to-side
motion, and rely strictly on vertical scanning and peripheral vision.
<P>
Practice every day for five to ten minutes. Try to find selections to read which
are of interest to you. There is no worse deterent to high-speed reading than
textual material that does not appeal to the reader. Likewise, very exciting and
interesting material is usually read at higher speeds.
<P>
When you have become reasonably proficient at reading that uses extensive
peripheral vision, try to expand that peripheral vision vertically. That is, try
to take in more than one line at a time. The best manner in which to consider
this is by focussing on the space between two lines, and read the text that
sandwiches it. The tricky part of this skill is the requirement of maintain a
check on two sources of information at the same time. Actually, it is not as
hard as it sounds. Although technically two lines of text represent two trains
of thought, usually the information on the two lines are so related that they
essentially say the same thing. By reading two lines at the same time, you are
doubling your already accelerated reading speed. When twin-line reading has been
perfected, the motivated reader can try for three lines of text for even more
reading power.
<HR>
<H3>Greased Lightning - A Final Note on Accelerated Reading</H3>
<H4>The need, the need, the need for speed - maybe</H4>
The speed at which you read a book is determined by a multiple of factors. The
basic speed is established by the fundamental comprehension level of the reader.
It is boosted by physical skills such as those described above. Favourable
environmental circumstances such as comfort and tranquility will provide the
ambience conducive to clear thinking and concentration. Finally, the actual
level of interest the reader has for the material will make or break the
motivation during a reading session.
<P>
Sometimes, speed-readers will make the mistake of confusing the means for the
ends. They make reading speed the objective, and sprint through whole volumes of
book, instead of using the skill to accomplish a specific goal: Making the
reading session more effective and, above all, more enjoyable. While it may be
possible to read an entire novel in half an hour, rapid reading will likely
prevent the reader from "chewing on" the story itself. Therefore, vary your
reading with the material. It may be better to spend an hour contemplating the
nuances of a poem, rather than whipping past it in five seconds.
<P>
Reading ability is a critical resource. The ability to read quickly will enable
you to access much more information in the same amount of time. You will also be
less physically and mentally drained by being able to finish a large book in a
fraction of the time originally required. Remember to keep training yourself.
The only way to more rapid reading speed, is by reading more, at a rapid speed.
Now that you have broken new ground in your reading abilities, let us examine
the revolutions from the cutting edge of technology. Look to the horizons, and
see the blazing neon of...
<BR><BR>
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