Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70
And doesn't the comprehension of what you read decrease as your reading speed increases? I mean generally speaking for the majority of people of course. I'm sure there are those who claim they fully comprehend what they read even at higher speeds, but I think it's easy to trip over concepts that are being talked about in a text if you read too fast. Like the old "A dog is man's best fiend" example for instance. Most people if they are reading quickly assume it reads "A dog is man's best friend" and only if they go back and read slower do they notice the change from what they thought they read.
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We tend to see what we expect to see. Sometimes I think I know what the author is trying to say, but once in a while there will be a phrase that doesn't fit in with my idea of what's going on. If I'm in a hurry, I just keep on reading. However, if I pause to reread the passage to try to understand why that phrase doesn't make sense, I'll usually figure out that the author's message was something entirely different from what I expected it to be. Maybe I'm just bad at getting the message in my first go, but I wonder if people who just motor through the text at speed aren't finding out when they get it wrong? It doesn't really matter if you don't get it right when reading fiction, but it does seem like a lost opportunity to me.