Speed reading is a skill that almost seems like a superpower.

A slew of cheap apps claiming to teach the technique would like you to think that it is teachable.

For some context: most of us tend to read at about 200-400 words per minute.

Speed readers claim to hit around 1000-1700 words per minute.

You look at a word or several words.

This is called a fixation, and it takes about .25 seconds on average.

You move your eye to the next word or group of words.

This is called a saccade, and it takes up to about .1 seconds on average.

After this is repeated once or twice, you pause to comprehend the phrase you just looked at.

That takes roughly 0.3 to 0.5 seconds on average.

Speed readers supposedly shorten how long they fixate on a word.

Skimmingis glancing through text to find important parts to read.

Although this is usually considered a speed reading method, youre not teaching yourself to read faster.

Youre just learning which parts you could skip over.

As youd expect,studies showthat we dont remember that many details when we skim.

Meta guidingis an older technique.

Its when you use a finger (or a pointer like a pen) to guide your eyes.

The point is to decrease distraction and focus on the specific words to increase your reading speed.

Another method pushes you read multiple lines at once byexpanding your peripheral vision.

Tim Ferriss has developed aspeed reading technique that riffs on this ideaand trains your focus more than anything else.

Single words flash on the screen, so youre concentrating on a single word at a time.

As you get used to the system, you speed up how fast the display shows you words.

you’re able to see an RSVP method called Spritz in actionhere.

But the problem is that you wont truly understand all of those words.

Rayner believes speed reading claims are nonsense because our eyes cant really work that way.

So, thats the rate limited factor, as is how fast the brain can process information.

Most speed reading methods involve getting rid of subvocalization.

Research shows

that when you do that and the text is difficult,

comprehension goes to pieces

.

As for methods like Ferriss that require you to read multiple lines at once?

Studiesincludingthis 2016 research by Raynerand his colleaguesshow that as reading speed increases, comprehension drops.

This means youre not taking in the information, which defeats the purpose of reading.

Of course, counter arguments exist.

Most recently, Spritzhas made claims that counterRayners assertions.

This is hardly surprising given that they are selling an app to train people to speed read.

That could be true, but it doesnt account for Rayners working memory problem.

Spritz also isnt sharing how their research was done or how many people were part of their study.

Apps that teach you speed reading

Its not all bad news though.

Speed reading has plenty of supporters.

you’re able to try it out for yourself easily these days.

Still, the bottom line is: dont expect amazing results.

Just pick the text you want from any web page and Spreed does the rest.

(Free)

Outread:An iOS app that uses a variation of meta guiding.

(Free)

Accelerator:An iOS app that uses a variation of RSVP.

So, in short: Speed reading anything you gotta truly comprehend is probably a bad idea.

Just know that you wont become a super-fast reading comprehension machine.