People do skip words or scan for key phrases, but reading still happens in sequence. The brain depends on word order and syntax to make sense of text, so you cannot truly read it all at once. Skimming just means you sample parts of a linear structure, not that reading itself is non-linear. Eye-tracking studies confirm this sequential processing (check out the Rayner study in Psychological Bulletin if you are interested).
Reading is def not 100% linear, as I find myself skipping ahead to see who is talking or what type of sentence I am reading (question, exclamation, statement).
There is an interesting discussion down thread about ADHD and sequential reading. As someone who has ADHD I may be biased by how my brain works. I definitely don't read strictly linearly, there is a lot of jumping around and assembling of text.
That's not exactly correct. You can totally read whole sentences or paragraphs at once without having to piece individual words together.
I can give you an analogy that should hopefully help. If you look at a house, you don't look at the doors, windows, facade, roof individually, then ponder how they are related together to come to a conclusion that it is a house. You immediately know. This is similar with reading. It might require practice though (and a lot of reading!).
He isn't, plenty of studies have been done on the topic. Eyes dart around a lot when reading.
People do skip words or scan for key phrases, but reading still happens in sequence. The brain depends on word order and syntax to make sense of text, so you cannot truly read it all at once. Skimming just means you sample parts of a linear structure, not that reading itself is non-linear. Eye-tracking studies confirm this sequential processing (check out the Rayner study in Psychological Bulletin if you are interested).
Thanks for the reference!
Reading is def not 100% linear, as I find myself skipping ahead to see who is talking or what type of sentence I am reading (question, exclamation, statement).
There is an interesting discussion down thread about ADHD and sequential reading. As someone who has ADHD I may be biased by how my brain works. I definitely don't read strictly linearly, there is a lot of jumping around and assembling of text.
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That's not exactly correct. You can totally read whole sentences or paragraphs at once without having to piece individual words together.
I can give you an analogy that should hopefully help. If you look at a house, you don't look at the doors, windows, facade, roof individually, then ponder how they are related together to come to a conclusion that it is a house. You immediately know. This is similar with reading. It might require practice though (and a lot of reading!).
1 reply →