Widening your fixation span
The pyramid, column and group drills that take you from one to four words per fixation.
The aim
Go from one to one and a half words per fixation up to three or four. For the same fixation duration, that is a speed gain of a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty per cent.
Drill 1: the pyramid
Fix only on the centre line of each row, without moving your eyes sideways. Read the words on both sides with parafoveal vision.
the | cat
the big | black cat
the big black | cat sleeps the big black cat | sleeps right here the very big black cat | sleeps right here quietly
Work down row by row. When you can no longer catch the ends, you have reached your current span. Stay at that step for a week, then continue.
The module's exercise book contains twenty progressive pyramids, built in English, calibrated from two to nine words.
Drill 2: columns
Take newspaper text in narrow columns, or print a text in columns five to six centimetres wide.
Work downwards making one single fixation per line, at the centre of the column. The reduced width makes the drill achievable from the first day.
Progression: columns of four centimetres, then six, then eight, then ten. The widest column you can process in one fixation is your real span.
Drill 3: cutting into sense groups
Take a normal text and mark with a pencil groups of three to four words forming a unit of meaning.
The sales director / presented the results / for the third quarter / to the board.
Read making one fixation per group. Four fixations for a sentence that would have taken fifteen.
Do it with a pencil for a week. After that the cutting happens mentally, with no marking: that is the point.
Drill 4: the home-made tachistoscope
Write groups of three, four then five words on cards. Expose them for a fraction of a second, uncovering and covering quickly with a sheet of paper, then write down what you read.
This drill forces global processing of a group rather than sequential decoding. It is the most effective of the set, and the most uncomfortable.
The four rules that make the training work
- Head still. Only the eyes move. Rest a hand on the top of your head during the first sessions: you will be surprised to feel the head following along.
- Do not try to understand during the mechanical drill. Comprehension and mechanics are trained separately, then rejoin.
- Short sessions, every day. Fifteen to twenty minutes daily beats two hours on a Sunday. This is motor learning.
- Correct lighting and distance. Forty to fifty centimetres, enough light. A span narrows automatically in poor light.
Expect a dip before the rise
For the first three to five days your comprehension will fall. That is normal and documented: you are de-automating a movement you have been making since childhood.
The recovery usually happens between the sixth and tenth day, and it goes past your starting level. Do not stop during the valley.
Fixation span and the speed that goes with it
Span is the one brake whose gain is multiplicative: that is why it justifies half the training time.
Exercises4
Understanding produces no change. These exercises are what makes the difference: each one has a measurable success criterion.
Pyramids, five minutes a day
Progressively widen the number of words caught in a single fixation.
Equipment : The module's eye drill workbook, printed.
- 1.Put the sheet forty to fifty centimetres away, in good light.
- 2.Rest a hand on the top of your head to check that it is not moving.
- 3.Fix only on the centre line of each row, never looking at the ends.
- 4.Work down until you can no longer catch the words at the edges. That is your step.
- 5.Stay at that step for a week before going further down.
Success looks like : You reliably catch three words on each side of the centre line, without moving your eyes.
The classic mistake : Going down the pyramid too fast out of impatience. An unconsolidated step collapses the moment comprehension comes back into the equation.
Going further : Move to the seven to nine word pyramids, then to columns of eight to ten centimetres.
Vertical columns
Process a whole line in a single fixation, starting from an achievable width.
Equipment : A text printed in columns of four centimetres, then six, then eight.
- 1.Start with the four-centimetre column: work down at one fixation per line.
- 2.When you can hold three complete texts without effort, move to six centimetres.
- 3.Then eight, then ten.
- 4.At each step, note the widest column you process in one fixation.
Success looks like : You work down an eight-centimetre column at one fixation per line, with comprehension intact.
The classic mistake : Moving your eyes sideways without noticing. If in doubt, have someone watch you: the drill only works with a single fixation.
Cutting with a pencil
Move from word-by-word reading to reading in sense groups.
Equipment : A printed text, a pencil.
- 1.Mark with a pencil groups of three to four words forming a unit of meaning.
- 2.Read making one single fixation per marked group.
- 3.Do it on one page a day for a week.
- 4.In the second week, stop marking: the cutting has to happen mentally.
Success looks like : After a week, you perceive the sense groups spontaneously without marking them.
The classic mistake : Marking arbitrary groups, cut in the middle of a phrase. The group has to form a unit of meaning, otherwise it is not encoded as one.
Home-made tachistoscope
Force global processing of a group of words, instead of sequential decoding.
Equipment : Cards with groups of three to five words, a sheet to cover them.
- 1.Prepare twenty cards: ten groups of three words, five of four, five of five.
- 2.Uncover a card for a fraction of a second, then cover it immediately.
- 3.Write down what you read, then check.
- 4.Start again with the longer groups once you reach eight correct out of ten.
Success looks like : Eight cards out of ten recovered correctly on the four-word groups.
The classic mistake : Leaving the card visible too long. If you have time to read word by word, the drill loses all its point.
This lesson is part of Speed Reading
16 lessons, 4 resources and the complete protocol to install the method in 30 days.