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pasky / speedread

A simple terminal-based open source Spritz-alike (per-word RSVP aligned on optimal reading points)
MIT License
1.06k stars 92 forks source link

Feature request: flash words #33

Open Thanatermesis opened 1 year ago

Thanatermesis commented 1 year ago

Long time ago I used a fast reading app which had a feature I never seen again in other apps but it was the most useful one.

Basically it "removed" the words before to show the next one, this means that the words "flashes" (show word1, unshow it, show word2, unshow it...) instead of showing them linearly one after the other, this increases the visibility of the chars for the brain by really-knowing what chars are drawn, instead of retaining the previous pixels in your memory

adlai commented 1 year ago

I'm skeptical whether such feature would help for training reading speed outside of the application, because it emphasizes each individual word instead of forcing the various cortices to cope with the flow; anyway, it's probably acceptable as an optional feature.

Thanatermesis commented 1 year ago

You can see a demo of this feature on this video of the old application i mentioned (note, the video plays fast): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7uyoxzrYOw

I think that what happens when flashing the words is that:

note that this happens very fast and is processed by the subconscious of the brain, but from my experience using that old app it was much more easy to read with the words disappearing before to show the new one

adlai commented 1 year ago
  • word dissappears: the brain remembers the word shown and processes it
  • word (new) appears: because of the previous one was removed, the brain can see more easily the "pixels that have changed", seeing more clearly the new one

note that this happens very fast and is processed by the subconscious of the brain, [...]

Arguably much more than sub-conscious, if it's being engineered deliberately!

If you visit this wikipedia stub, you'll find two pages potentially relevant to this discussion; my thinking, in favor of your request being the default mode, is that accounting for such recharging times might reduce strain when reading long paragraphs.