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I saw the stories about Bionic Reading a few days ago and ended up going down the rabbit hole for a bit. What interested me was that it wasn't the weight of the
by satysin 4y ago
I saw the stories about Bionic Reading a few days ago and ended up going down the rabbit hole for a bit. What interested me was that it wasn't the weight of the letters that helped me read quicker but the shorter lines.
The examples with and without Bionic Reading formatting were just as easy for me to read but where it fell apart was when I read something with more words per line. Put 12+ words on a line and the Bionic Reading formatting didn't help.
Having an average of 5 words per line is so much easier for me to read it kinda blows my mind.
My (totally pulled out of my ass) guess as to why this is the case (for me anyway) is that less horizontal eye movement reduces cognitive load and allows for easier processing of what the brain is seeing.
Has anyone else found this?
- leokennis 4y agoI have no way to verify this, but of course speed <> comprehension. It's better to read a book once in 100 minutes and comprehend everything, than requiring two speed-reads of 60 minutes to reach that same level of comprehension.
- pydave 4y agoI've also found narrower columns of text generally easier to read. My browser is usually a half screen so many websites display their mobile mode. I assumed it was this shorter lines effect that Pocket, Instapaper, etc put wide margins around your articles and large text.
- Breza 4y agoNot to mention newspapers. I spend so much of my life looking at screens that I enjoy reading the Washington Post print edition over breakfast. My one year old calls it the "daddy paper."