A friend of mine got eyeQ, which is a program that is meant to improve reading skills. She read at a normal speed, but after seeing the infomercial featuring people reading as fast as Mr. Data, she wanted to give it a try.
Last night I sat down for the introductory session at her place. It looked really simple at first, almost not worth it. The average reading speed is between 150 and 250 words per minute, and I went through (Was trying to hurry, but at a pace slow enough that I wasn't stumbling over the important facts) the initial bit of text, scoring 341 words per minute. After running through the first sets of simple shape and word recognition exercises, one of which was a chapter from "The Wizard of Oz" that blazed by at a paragraph per second. At first I was only seeing words like "Dorothy," but I started to recognize about one third of each paragraph and comprehend what I was seeing. I took the follow-up test, which featured more challenging words and less filler such as 'I, me, it, they, them, there, you, and', and I scored 577 words per minute. It reminded me of reading music notation, where you see it all and sometimes your eyes are processing the next two measures while your brain is figuring out the current one.
From what I understand, speed reading techniques typically have their foundations on removing superfluous filler, but this seems to be the real deal. This seems to actually strengthen your visual comprehension, instead of working on which words aren't all that important.
I'm heading back on Tuesday night to check it out again. I think I'll buy it if it gives me similar results again. Apparently most people get at least to the 800 words per minute range in a month, and some are as far as 1200 words per minute... ! Originally I was going to search for and download a stopwatch widget to her computer to see if it was fudging with the results at all, but I could tell it was legit when my eyes were blazing through the page.
NUTS.
eyeQ is NOT bullshit. Please read.
eyeQ is NOT bullshit. Please read.
[img]http://members.cox.net/anticsensue/rep_june.gif[/img]
Why don't you try it for yourself, loser? "Time to post something witty to try and get rep. That'll make my Qu(f)ake friends more impressed with me if I attack the top dog!" Dumbass.
Try it out. I've seen a lot of libraries with this software recently. Your local library may have it... If not, contact a local elementary school and ask them if you can try it out for a few minutes. It never hurts to ask. The demo on the site has already proven in this thread alone to almost double the speed of one reader.
I bet someone will post something like, "Opera fired rep for being too aggressive on how much the browser owns everything else, and alienated potential switchers because of their stupid reactionary defense mentalities, so now he works for the people behind eyeQ."
Try it out. I've seen a lot of libraries with this software recently. Your local library may have it... If not, contact a local elementary school and ask them if you can try it out for a few minutes. It never hurts to ask. The demo on the site has already proven in this thread alone to almost double the speed of one reader.
I bet someone will post something like, "Opera fired rep for being too aggressive on how much the browser owns everything else, and alienated potential switchers because of their stupid reactionary defense mentalities, so now he works for the people behind eyeQ."
[img]http://members.cox.net/anticsensue/rep_june.gif[/img]
My local library won't have it, i know my school doesn't have it and i doubt the nearby schools do. I'm attacking your credibility, because so far just about everything of any worth you've claimed has been your opinion that you've presented as fact, or just straightup bullshit.
Contrary to what you believe, you aren't 'top dog'. Shut up already, christ.
And I strongly doubt anyone with two braincells to rub together would hire you, let alone the developers of Opera... then again, this eyeQ sounds a little iffy, it might be your big break!
Contrary to what you believe, you aren't 'top dog'. Shut up already, christ.
And I strongly doubt anyone with two braincells to rub together would hire you, let alone the developers of Opera... then again, this eyeQ sounds a little iffy, it might be your big break!
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Giraffe }{unter
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stocktroll
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[xeno]Julios
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if visual recognition is a bottleneck in your reading, I can see something like this helping.
But for reading where you want to reflect carefully on the meaning before moving on - that is, processing the deep meaning of the sentences, I don't see how this approach could help.
Probably effective for things that you would skim anyway.
But for reading where you want to reflect carefully on the meaning before moving on - that is, processing the deep meaning of the sentences, I don't see how this approach could help.
Probably effective for things that you would skim anyway.
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[xeno]Julios
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so i tried the demo - went from 403 to 477, but i didn't get the full meaning of either passages, since i was reading so fast.
The exercises may condition you to move faster.
Another thing that you must consider is that performing the exercises may temporarily put you into a focused state of mind, since you've been practicing reading so much (especially the last exercises). A real test would be to see if the benefits carried over from one day to the next, as opposed to testing right after.
Also, I couldn't find any research supporting this program.
According to the website:
Also:
Ye upon a literature search, I only found four papers that were co-authored by Kawamura:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22 ... tnG=Search
And they're all to do with chest pain issues.
So to call him a leading brain researcher is, imo, disingenous.
And where is all this compelling research they are alluding to?
The exercises may condition you to move faster.
Another thing that you must consider is that performing the exercises may temporarily put you into a focused state of mind, since you've been practicing reading so much (especially the last exercises). A real test would be to see if the benefits carried over from one day to the next, as opposed to testing right after.
Also, I couldn't find any research supporting this program.
According to the website:
http://www.infmind.com/what/The highly effective brain enhancement techniques in eyeQ were developed in the 1980's by Dr. Akihiro Kawamura, one of Japan's leading brain enhancement researchers, who has authored more than 70 books relating to the brain and the learning process.
A compelling combination of technology and scientific research has resulted in revolutionary methods of brain enhancement, which are shared in eyeQ.
Also:
http://www.infmind.com/what/science.asp?sl=tp&ssl=scThe research of Dr. Kawamura and others suggest that the way most of us are taught to read, think, and learn can later hinder our ability to effectively process information.
Along with other scientists, Dr. Kawamura has found that one of the keys to learning to read and process information faster is use of a "whole brain" approach that allows the brain to absorb information quickly.
Success in eyeQ is achieved by strengthening the eye-brain connection and removing factors that prevent the rapid processing of information.
The eye-brain connection is only as strong as the eye muscles themselves. In this program, Dr. Kawamura provides unique exercises that strengthen these important muscles.
The eyeQ program retrains the brain to expand the field of vision and to absorb information more quickly, both of which allow for reading and processing at a significantly increased speed.
Ye upon a literature search, I only found four papers that were co-authored by Kawamura:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22 ... tnG=Search
And they're all to do with chest pain issues.
So to call him a leading brain researcher is, imo, disingenous.
And where is all this compelling research they are alluding to?
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The PlainisT
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+JuggerNaut+
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+JuggerNaut+ wrote:you just wasted time and a disc to burn something that you MIGHT check out SOMETIME?Bdw3 wrote:Yeah- So I just burned the program to a disc. Maybe I'll check it out sometime....
p.s. i had to highlight that to read.
Discs are cheap and it downloaded and seeded while I was gone, it was only 140MB or so.
Last edited by Bdw3 on Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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The PlainisT
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Tormentius
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