Speed Reading is a Science

What ‘Instinct’ Produces Speed Reading?

Instinct

What’s a 3rd grade definition of ‘instinct’?

Is it reflex? Which is closest - ‘intuition’, ‘hardwired’, ‘gut-reaction’ or habit?

In college we get this definition – a biological-drive, an inbo
pattern of behavio
shaped by biological needs such as ‘survival’ and reproduction. Latin of course –nmeaning ‘impulse’, stemming from – ‘to sting’.

Boring? Let try this knockout example of a psychological-instinct. It is by brilliant-star, Steven Cohen, author of ‘Win the Crowd’. We strongly recommend it as a learning textbook.

Distraction

1. “How many fingers does one man have on his hands?”
2. “How many fingers on ten hands?”

Okay – if you are as smart as me – you answered ten, and one-hundred – right?

And you did it fast – automatically - without analysis - that one man has ten-fingers, and they come with the body. No tricks – that’s absolutely correct – you win the Crackerjack prize.

Now number 2 – you and I answer one-hundred because we reasoned governed by the correct answer to the answer to number 1. Ten-fingers for one man – wenmultiplied by ten. Easy. Hold it! The question was the number of fingers on nten-hands – not ten-men. Of course you know that there are only five-fingersnon one-hand, and ten-times-five is fifty – not one-hundred.

Question number one led you down a path of correctness – answering it correctly put your brain in a specific state-of-mind. We based our answe
to question number 2 – on how ‘smart’ we felt when we got the rightnanswer to #1. Don’t we all luv to be ‘right’? When we’re right – we stop toncongratulate ourselves – and stop thinking for a couple-of-heartbeats.
No thinking means reading without meaning-and-understanding.

Is this a trick-question?

No! It is a lesson in ‘distraction’, and how a cognitive-instinct makes us nkind of – susceptible to error.

The Prez

Did you hear the speech President Bush made when he said –

“Is your children doing well in school?”

Did you answer – ‘Yes - they is!’ - or ‘No - they isn’t?’

Wait - that sounds dum!

The President is both a Yale, and Harvard Business School graduate – if youncannot trust him – who can you…?

What happened to distract his university-level thinking? n
It sounded perfectly right in his mind.

Eyes Follow a Moving Object

If there is one buried secret to being a Speedlea
er – it is discovering and utilizing the instinct that we are hardwired for - ‘movement’. Our brain directsnour eyes to stop thinking-and-analyzing when anything ‘moves’ within our
Field-of-Vision. Instinct-automatic-genetic, and hardwired, kicks in when we see movement.

Yes, it’s hereditary, evolutionary and genetic – that our eyes must follow a moving object. It is a gift given to our ancestors – when they still swung inntrees, continued in caves, and remains active in 2005+. The purpose was tongive them an extra second or two to escape or defend themselves – from danger.

Because our eyes follow any moving object – a leaping-tiger, an attacking tribe from the cave next-door – or a pacer used for Speedlea
ing – it is a life-saver.

What makes it work? Remember – you don’t have to understand why somethingnworks - to use it and learn from it. If the Motor Vehicle Bureau required us tonbe able to explain ‘spontaneous-combustion’ in a gas engine, or how ‘automatic-transmission’ works – the roads would be empty.

In Speedlea
ing – explaining how-or-why our ‘eyes follow a moving-object’ - isna form of nuclear physics for us. All we know is that when we engage ourn‘peripheral-vision’, using the “rods” (photoreceptors), in our retina, we change the focus of our “Eye-Movement-Patte
s” - in our ‘Field-of-Vision’.

In reading we go from a “foveal-vision” of six-letters wide, to “peripheral-vision” of up to thirty-six-letters wide. We plain - see more! Up to six-words at a time for Speedlea
ers - instead of just one-word at a time for ‘snailers’. Speedlea
ers are capable of tripling their reading speed and adding up to 40% to their learning-skills.

Endwords

Do you have to understand how-and-why our eyes follow a moving object?
Do basketball players know how they see the opposition players on their lateral-left and lateral-right? Can you explain how you look out your car’s windshieldnand simultaneously see directly in front of you (in your lane), and the cars in thenleft and right-lanes? All you have to know is it works - and saves lives.

We suggest you use the Speedlea
ing strategy of ‘triple-reading’ for this article, and Skim-Scan-Screen the paragraphs. It generates up to a 40% improvement in your concentration-comprehension-reading speed, and long-term memory.
And that’s an important contribution to your brilliance as a student – executive or professional.

See Ya,nncopyright © 2005
H. Bernard Wechsle
www.speedlea
ing.orgnhbw@speedlea
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