There are trade offs between reading time and reading comprehension. For example you can skim through a short story in one minute and come away with 75%. Or y

There are trade offs between reading time and reading comprehension. For example you can skim through a short story in one minute and come away with 75%. Or you can read through the same story in 5 minutes and come away with 90% (made up numbers). If I were taking a test with limited time and a lot of reading, I might choose the speed reading because it's most "cost effective". If I were studying, virtually unlimited time, and trying to retain the information, I would go with the latter. If I were just reading for entertainment, it would probably be something in between (which might end up being slower and retaining less). I agree that subconsciously we probably pick up a lot more than we realize.