(no subject)

[wispfox]

OK, random reading speed test thingy that ladytabitha posted a link to.

http://mindbluff.com/askread2.htm

43 seconds for the first... (reading at light fiction speed, although still reading every word. Gods, that was a boring story! Entirely too many details about the house!)

700 - 750 w/m for the second, reading at non-scientific textbook speed.

And I don't know how much the fact that I'm exhausted and not reading a paper book affects those. I read faster when I'm not tired, and I _think_ I read faster when reading on paper rather than a computer screen.

Neat!

Comments

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

Why would you doubt your ability to have read it right the first time?

Sometimes rereading happens with complex texts, but usually it just means I'm tired/bored.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Right. Which is what I said immediately before the stuff you quoted. 'If I'm doing _that_, I'm too tired to be reading.'

I guess the question I was asking should have been 'if you're not too tired or bored or something to be reading, why would one feel the need to re-read something while in the middle of reading it?'

Although, yes, I do agree with complex texts as another possible reason. :)

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

[Cognitive Psychology] Looping is one stage of the "learning to read" process. Eventually, people become so accustomed to reading that the loops become smaller and unconscious. But everyone loops on a small-scale, but may not be aware of it until it becomes larger. [/Psych]

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I _totally_ didn't know this. Neat!

Where did you get that info from? I'm all curious now and want more to read along similar 'how people's minds work' lines.

[bridgetester.livejournal.com]

From my Cognitive Psychology class last semester.

We minimally used Robert J. Steinberg's Cognitive Psychology (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0155085352), but the class really relied on lecture and articles. I can dig up a list of articles about reading at some point, if you remind me. (The book was often too easy and simplistic, but the articles were rather long and jargon-filled though.)

I also recommend Steven Pinker's books on language, Howard Gardner's theories of multiple intelligences, Mel Levine's A Mind at a Time, Donald Norman's books on usability...

Some more books on usability (http://nmc1.kent.edu/iakm/html/Textbooks.htm)