We've compiled a shortlist of Speed Reading Techniques that claim to enhance or circumvent some aspects of this process in order to enhance your reading speed. Here are three common speed reading techniques that claim to increase your Speed Reading Test.

The Three-Speed Reading Techniques are as follows:

• Rapid Serial Visual Processing – showing each word in succession, on the same spot
• Eliminating sub-vocalization – suppressing the voice in your head that “speaks” what you are reading
• Enlarging the area of your fixations – essentially reading text with your peripheral vision. The question is: do any of them work?

Let's talk about the RSVP Speed Reading Technique First - this RSVP technique finds its origins in a device called a tachistoscope, which flashes images using a slide projector in rapid succession to help people improve their recognition speed. Tachistoscopes were used during World War II to help fighter pilots recognize other aircraft as friendly or hostile, and in In the 1960s, some schools started using them to help students increase their reading speed.

Several modern RSVP speed reading apps have unique features - for example, the RSVP Speed Reading apps allow you to see one word at a time at the same time. This randomizes the words from the available paragraphs in the database. Each time, you'll get a unique word. This app measures word speed in words per minute, and you can set a rate for words to appear.

However, independent research shows that RSVP systems don't perform well for all of these features. RSVP systems present every single word, and your brain must try to process them all at the same time.

A 1987 speed reading study suggested something quite interesting - readers are more likely to focus on content words in general, not just words with longer lengths. In reading tests where three-letter content words were used, normal readers focused more on those words than function words. Speed readers and skimmers, on the other hand, focused equally on content and function words in this type of test.

This shows that our brains can focus on the most important words even at standard reading speeds. This ability is taken away from RSVP, which shows every word that is said. As all this text floods into your working memory at once, it strains to keep up. As I've experienced in my own informal RSVP tests systems, I find it exhausting to read this way, and I usually forget many details after doing it for more than 30 seconds.

Another issue with RSVP speed reading apps is that they do not allow regressions - going back to reread text you've already read. A study conducted by Elizabeth Schotter in 2014 examined RSVP systems in detail, and the conclusion was that this is a major problem. Comprehending levels were negatively affected by the inability to make regressions.

So, in my opinion, the three techniques have been thoroughly debunked as far as their usefulness for comprehension and learning. Does that mean that they're all useless? Perhaps not in every case - for example, I've heard that RSVP speed reading apps can be useful for reading through text messages and emails quickly.

However, what about Eliminating sub-vocalization? There are speed reading courses that say you must read the text to comprehend it, but your "inner voice" that essentially speaks what you're reading slows you down. What if you could eliminate sub-vocal speech? Would you be able to process texts faster?

Again, research shows this is a tactic that's unlikely to succeed. According to Elizabeth Schotter, author of a research on speed reading that has just come out:

Whether or not you read aloud, your brain sends signals to your vocal cords. NASA scientists have even developed a tool to measure and detect these signals.

Studies have been conducted where researchers have asked participants to eliminate sub-vocalization - in some cases by playing a tone when the vocal cord signals were detected, in others by having them hum aloud while reading - and in each case, comprehension dropped drastically.

It seems that reading is inextricably linked to our auditory language processing abilities, and separating the two causes more harm than good.

Let's move on to our third method, which is the one that you guys requested I talk about most. This is the technique used by speed-reading apps like WPMTEST, Speed Reading Test, and others, and it's called Rapid Serial Visual Processing.

These apps display each word in reading in rapid succession. As the words are fixed in the same spot, you don't need to saccade - your eyes stay in the same place while the words change.

In this section, we'll talk about how speed readers can focus on larger areas of a page. Some people have even claimed to be able to fixate on a page only once, taking a "mental snapshot" of the page all at once.

Similarly, a 1962 study cited a speed reader who could achieve a speed of 10,000 words per minute by making only 6 fixes per page in a counterclockwise manner around the page, without following the lines of text at all.

However, that study didn’t have any measure of comprehension, and further studies have shown that good comprehension can only be achieved when readers follow the lines. Furthermore, text cannot be comprehended in the peripheral area of your visual field.

The 1987 research paper on speed-reading reported that only one correct answer was given out of 30 times when the test was conducted at a distance greater than 3 letter spaces from where the reader had fixated.

With these findings add to what we already know about the size of the foveal area, the results are clear: Fixations are small, and you cannot comprehend text that doesn't lie within or very close to them.

It's all about practice when it comes to speed reading. As you practice this learning technique, you will become more proficient at it. Therefore, you should use these speed reading techniques to improve your reading speed. But the most important thing is to learn to identify the most important points of the reading material and to develop a wider field of vision.

If you're trying to learn new material from a book, I don't recommend using these methods. They won't help you.