Topic summary
Reading speed
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Reading.
Other terms
Techniques claimed to increase reading speed without experiencing an unacceptable reduction in comprehension or retention. Purported techniques include chunking of words in a body of text, skimming, and others. However, cognitive neuroscientists such as Stanislas Dehaene and Mark Seidenberg say that claims of reading up to 1,000 words per minute are impossible and 'must be viewed with skepticism'. For most adults, the English reading speed falls between 175 and 320 words per minute.