Speed Vs. Comprehension; Another Potential False Dilemma
It is often asserted that gains in reading speed are made at the expense of comprehension, and this is certainly true of “skimming” if Masson (1982) is any indication. I would go so far as to assert that skimming, like photo-reading is really only playing pretend at speed reading and only works so long as the reader is not required to understand the material.
Masson documents the utter lack of ability to focus on items of relevance when skimming. This implies that parts of the subject matter are absorbed as a random selection from the whole, and this leaves the reader vulnerable to missing important information. Reading need not be marred by the inaccuracies of “skimming” to be fast. Cranny et. Al. (1982), found that the comprehension of rapid readers was superior to their slower counterparts. Evidently, when a larger BIP or “Basic unit of Information Processing” is used, reading is more rapid, and comprehension more reliable. Dwyer & West (1989) document methods for improving reading rates without skimming. Hall (1989) documents the use of speed-reading activities to exercise the comprehension of the student. Tan and Nicholson (1997) found that reading too slowly impairs comprehension, and that the progression from character and diphthong recognition and subsequent assembly, to whole word recognition resulted in a marked improvement in comprehension.
Increased reading speed when based on sight reading techniques, actually improves comprehension and because the information is acquired with less effort, it also makes the process of reading far more enjoyable and relaxing. This is a vitally important area of work-related stress that can be substantially reduced with the implementation and extension of sight reading techniques. The ability to recognise words and phrases in context however, is therefore the key to faster and more accurate comprehension.
