>we don't know what the authors considered; they apparently have done a lot of research on the subject That's true we don't know what they considered but a cur

>we don't know what the authors considered; they apparently have done a lot of research on the subject That's true we don't know what they considered but a cursory search doesn't find any primary research on 2x audio acceleration performed by either Rebecca Treiman or Jeffrey Zacks. As for reading text, it looks like RT's commentary on speedreading is based on meta-research[1] and not primary lab research. (It's also possible they published primary research in an academic journal that google doesn't index.) It looks like their comment about speech acceleration is anecdotal instead of being based on rigorous research. >what you list aren't data Why not? If an audiofile has speech content, one can count the total words, divide by total minutes, and hence, calculate a words-per-minute. Why is wpm not data? The average reading speed of adults is also well-documented: https://www.google.com/search?q=average+reading+speed+of+adults https://www.google.com/search?q=average+reading+speed+of+adu... In any case, HN readers can try it themselves on a bunch of youtube videos. For example, the Scarlet Letter novel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnfaAZu0fNE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnfaAZu0fNE Another example from a news show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTSr07u8gow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTSr07u8gow Apple presentation with Tim Cook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zbAFSJCPSI&feature=youtu.be&t=1m17s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zbAFSJCPSI&feature=youtu.be... Change the playback option to 2x on those videos. Can it really be impossible to understand the meaning as the authors assert?!? For listeners whose native language is not English, perhaps they require the slower 1x playback speed. For most others, I'm very skeptical that 2x speed is impossible to extract meaning. [1]http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/speed_reading.html http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/s...