[GOLAGLULT]

http://venturebeat.com/2007/05/10/li...ne/#more-10459



Did you know our primitive brains weren’t wired very well to read this paragraph?
Scientific research conducted by Walker Reading Technologies, a small Minnesota startup that has been studying our ability to read for the last ten years, has concluded that the natural field of focus for our eyes is circular, so our eyes view the printed page as if we’re peering through a straw.
And a very bad-behaving straw at that, because not only do our eyes feed our brain the words we’re reading, they’re also uploading characters and words from the two sentences above and below the line we’re reading.
Every time we read block text, we’re forcing our brain to a wage a constant subconscious battle with itself to filter and discard the superfluous inputs. This mental tug of war slows reading speed and diminishes comprehension.
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my thinking and reading is pretty much like this, in fact some people here have criticised my writing style because it doesn't seem "normal".

[Solo3uc4]

I read the article, as well as read the sample, and then the comments.

I read fast, not a "speed" reader. I can't read more than 1,000wpm but i do read somewhere in the range of 600 to 700wpm.

But noticed a difference between reading the two samples. I did read the "live ink" sample faster than the standard block of text. I also understand what the reserachers are getting that. And it works for me.


If you think it about it thats how we type IM's for the most part. I read several words ahead, either based on guessing the next word, or catching enough characters to use the context to guess from that. The live ink method allows us to catch not only words horizontally, but the formating allows us to see much more of the sentence.

So it is faster.

[CevepBiageCefm]

It is also much easier to take in and remember the info when it's broken up into fragments. I find it hard to remember all the details in a few short paragraphs and have to go back and read them again to get it all.

Our brains get overwhelmed easily when we try to take in too much data at once in one stream.

[TheReallyBest]

Okay not to knock their idea but we've known for a long time that the natural field of focus for our eyes is a small circle and the rest is peripheral and of the unconscious.

[Gometesstem]

How are you supposed to format a novel like that? It would be 3 feet long and an inch wide.

[Solo3uc4]

How are you supposed to format a novel like that? It would be 3 feet long and an inch wide.

You don't. A program breaks it up into sections, and that is what is displayed on the screen. This is a technology for a digital medium. It would never work as a printed medium because its too lengthy and wasteful.

[GOLAGLULT]

western cultures read left to right and our brain's use our peripheral vision i the same way.
the following information is probably true for ANY way of reading, eastern , middle east, western, etc.
. the brain has "look ahead" method, and has a kind of "egg shaped 90 degrees to the right" field of conscious view when reading.
when statically looking at a character the view is more rounded until we look at something moving, like reading. our brain's change to "anticipation" mode and pay more attention to the direction you"will" look.

when you read, your eyes is catching 10-14 characters ahead and can see about half that behind the ACTUAL character your staring at any moment.
there is also, as mentioned, above and below periphery.

seeing as we can only hold 7 (+/-2) units of information in our short term memory per moment it's a wonder our pathetic brains can read at all

[Solo3uc4]

western cultures read left to right and our brain's use our peripheral vision i the same way.
the following information is probably true for ANY way of reading, eastern , middle east, western, etc.
. the brain has "look ahead" method, and has a kind of "egg shaped 90 degrees to the right" field of conscious view when reading.
when statically looking at a character the view is more rounded until we look at something moving, like reading. our brain's change to "anticipation" mode and pay more attention to the direction you"will" look.

when you read, your eyes is catching 10-14 characters ahead and can see about half that behind the ACTUAL character your staring at any moment.
there is also, as mentioned, above and below periphery.

seeing as we can only hold 7 (+/-2) units of information in our short term memory per moment it's a wonder our pathetic brains can read at all

Actually its not surprising at all. Once a person has learned to read they no longer view words as combinations of letters. A word is a Word, and we see all of its characters as one item. We also ignore words like and, of, it. etc... Our mind automatically fills in the blanks as it were.