Before you start reading, you need to choose a specific mode in which you will read. This mode depends on the material to be read and the purpose of reading. It is recommended to classify texts intended for reading depending on the purpose of reading. In its most general form, this classification looks like this:

1) texts that need to be studied in detail;

2) texts that should be read;

3) texts from which you need to select certain information.

It should be noted that the assignment of a text to one group or another does not depend on its stylistic and genre affiliation, but is determined solely by the pragmatic attitude of a person.

For example, if an article from a popular journal needs to be studied in detail in order to use the data it contains to compile a review or abstract, then this article will be classified in group 1; if the magazine is read for entertainment purposes, then the same article will be classified in group 2; and finally, if you are told that this article contains some information that interests you (for example, statistics), then it should be classified in group 3.

Methods, or types, of reading are strategies used when reading texts from various groups. One or another strategy is chosen depending on the purpose and objectives of reading. The following main reading methods are distinguished.

1. In-depth reading. When reading this way, it is necessary to understand what problem the author is solving, what his point of view and conclusions are. To do this, you need to comprehend the structure of the text, compare the author’s conclusions with your own reasoning. At the same time, attention is paid to the details of the text, their analysis and evaluation are carried out. As a result, the text must be completely assimilated, all information must be processed. You should try to remember the main part of the text so that you can use it later.

2) the questions that he considers to prove his idea, the arguments that he gives;

Sometimes this method of reading is called analytical, studying, creative, etc. This method is used when reading texts of the 1st group - usually these are textbooks, texts on unfamiliar, complex topics.

2. Introductory reading. The purpose of this method of reading is a general familiarity with the content of the text. In this case, attention is paid not to the analysis of the text, but to its informative side - as a rule, only basic information.

With this method of reading, it is enough to understand what essential facts are contained in the text. In addition, you should remember the output of the text, i.e. where and when it was published.

Introductory reading is used when reading texts of the 2nd group - usually these are texts of journalistic style (newspaper and magazine articles), and sometimes fiction.

3. Selective reading. If you are interested in some very specific information in the text (for example, statistical data, a description of an event, etc.) or the novelty of the information provided, then you should use selective reading. At the same time, you don’t have to analyze all the facts contained in the text - it’s enough to understand what is new, important and useful for you in such a text.

This method is used when reading texts of the 3rd group - these can be texts of any genre and style: scientific, official business, journalistic, artistic.

4. Read-View. One type of selective reading is skimming, which is used for preliminary familiarization with the book. It consists in reading the table of contents of the book, the preface (the most important provisions of the author are selected), and the conclusion. The purpose of such reading is to determine whether this book should be bought, ordered from the library, whether it should be read, if necessary, in what way, etc.

5. Scanning. This is another type of selective reading. Scanning is a quick review of printed text in order to search for a surname, word, facts, etc. In this case, the eyes move, as a rule, in a vertical direction in the center of the page, and vision works selectively: the reader has the intention of finding only the data that interests him. To master this method of reading, it is necessary to develop reading techniques, in particular, expand the field of vision, train selectivity of attention, etc. A person trained in this method of reading can absorb text two to three times faster than a traditional reader.

6. Quick reading. This method of reading requires special training and is characterized not only by high reading speed, but also by high quality of assimilation of what is read. It is based on certain rules (algorithms) and is not inferior to in-depth reading in terms of depth of understanding and memorization. The technique of such reading is taught at Oleg Andreev’s School of Rapid Reading, as well as at the School of Rational Reading (see list of references).

We are all surrounded by texts: we read books, forums, online newsletters, magazines... We need to know everything, we need to delve into everything. But thoughtful reading is not quick reading. No matter how perfectly you practice your skill, it will still take you up to 10 minutes of time, and sometimes more, to write an interesting paragraph.

There are 6 paragraphs per page. Page - hour. A thin book of 240 pages will then take you 10 full days without sleep. If you read continuously for 8 hours a day - a month...

And there are thousands of books you need.

What to do? Learn to read quickly? It’s possible, it’s a useful skill, but it’s not a solution yet. Imagine, you spent six months mastering speed reading, learned to read quickly and began to read what you didn’t need, then you spent time mastering speed reading and then you simply continue to overload yourself with unnecessary information at a faster rate.

Speed ​​is not the answer. If a person has learned to run fast, but runs along the wrong road, he will come home later than a calm pedestrian who knows the right path.

~C~Master selective reading.

Reading discipline

In reading, as in life, you need discipline: the habit of doing not everything you suddenly want, but what is important now. See>

Selective Reading Instructions

So, don't read books you don't need. But this is just the beginning. Concentrate on what you really need. See>

How to read literary texts

Should you read literary texts? An interesting question: a literary text, when read correctly, becomes a good training for personal development. Remember how beautiful and bright images sink deep into the soul, how we begin to imitate them in life, how we learn to be kinder, more honest, wiser... On the other hand, many avid readers escape from real life into the world of literary text... See>

PARADOXES OF MEMORY L. Khromov The paradoxes begin with the definition of what memory is. Scientists have no unity here, there are dozens of definitions, and at representative philosophical seminars there are heated debates: everyone (for themselves) perfectly understands what we are talking about, but to define... Let's say, anyone knows what a saucepan is, but try to give a definition pans - and you will see that it is not easy to formulate it so that there is neither a ladle, nor a frying pan, nor a tank. The diversity of shape, material, color and, most importantly, purpose becomes a difficult barrier. What can we say about memory! Are potholes on the road and a scar on your arm equally imprinted in your memory? The first is purely speculative, the second is much stronger in sensation (body memory). But where is the limit of interpenetration and mutual influence of the mental and somatic (roughly translated - bodily)? And in particular: are our memory-dependent reactions connected only to the brain? The discrepancy in the definition of memory leads us to assume that scientists are studying different types of memory. This is already happening within one scientific discipline. And it is absolutely impossible to list the branches of science involved in the study of memory. In almost every popular book on memory one can find lengthy lists of sciences that are somehow focused on memory. Almost half of the scientists studying the functions of the human body study memory or, at least, are professionally interested in it. Psychologists, for example, use the methods of physiology, while continuing to consider themselves pure psychologists. Physiologists rightly believe that human mental functions are the subject of study of the science of physiology. And they study the same characteristics of memory that psychologists do. Both may believe that they are exploring the only true, real memory. Perhaps the time has come to clarify (and specify) the classification of scientific disciplines? This is a delicate matter, since both psychology and physiology have been sufficiently penetrated by natural and technical sciences. To complete the conversation about the definition of memory, without imposing our own definition, we will agree that the reader, even without this scientific definition, understands what we are talking about. For reference, let us refer to the Encyclopedic Dictionary, which says that memory is “the ability to reproduce past experience, one of the main properties of the nervous system, expressed in the ability to long-term store information about events in the external world and the reactions of the body and repeatedly enter it into the sphere of consciousness and behavior." What is a good memory? And what is bad? People often complain about memory, but no one complains about intelligence (at least, that there is little of it left). Memory is often lacking precisely because we rarely connect our minds to work. If we talk about good and bad memory, then the authors think that, depending on the characteristics of individual memory, it makes sense to talk about it as good when memory does not interfere with us. Thus, they say about a good heart: “I don’t feel it.” But this is approximately. Memory exists precisely in the manifestation of itself, in the reproduction of its traces, although a person very often reproduces material without realizing that he is accessing memory. So, when memory is convenient, like a well-fitted burden, when it is ready to offer everything you need, without missing anything or adding anything superfluous, then you can talk about memory as good. Or even as very good. We do not require memory to store everything, but we want it not to lose what it needs. Deviations in both the direction of increased and difficult forgetting indicate imperfect memory. Gifted with a phenomenal memory, S.V. Shereshevsky (Luria A.R. A little book about big memory) at the top of his mnemonic career was more concerned not about how to remember, but about how to forget! He invented techniques for forgetting. His unique memory did not allow him to free himself from mnemonics. He wrote down what was to be forgotten, and remembered that this information should be forgotten! In principle, this is what is required of all of us in everyday life, but we need to learn to remember that this information needs to be remembered. This, in general, is the beginning of mnemonics. Many, however, treat mnemonics ironically and claim that they do not use it, but nevertheless live and work without much hassle. Meanwhile, these people dial the phone number as 35-35-130, and not as 3535130 (three million five hundred thirty-five thousand one hundred thirty). And this is already mnemonics, since the information is organized. In principle, the very comprehension and understanding of the way to obtain any trigonometric formula is mnemonics. Question: why did these arguments end up in the article “Paradoxes of Memory”? What is the connection between Shereshevsky’s phenomenal memory and our ordinary one? The truth is that we all seem to suffer in some way from the same vice. Perhaps, to the same extent as Shereshevsky, we remember everything forever, without noticing it ourselves. We remember, but we can’t remember how Shereshevsky did it - such an offensive difference. Formally, the possibilities of our memory are almost limitless. You can read about this in almost every popular book about memory. It is known that the information capacity of memory is enormous. Researchers give various figures for memory capacity up to a maximum of 1023 bits of information, but even average figures indicate our memory capacity is about 1015 bits. We will not go into the meaning of the concept of “bit of information”, since it seems to us that this will not help much in understanding the volume of our memory. Let us simply note that the multiplication table contains only one and a half thousand bits of information, and the volume of human memory is several orders of magnitude greater than the memory capacity of modern computers and, apparently, exceeds the information volume of the State Library of the USSR named after Lenin... But it is impossible to reproduce such an amount of information, he believes Canadian scientist Penfield, possible only under special conditions. But where does this wealth go in real life? Why do we forget, for example, to fulfill a basic request - to buy butter or bread in the store? Paradox... Don't you think it's a paradoxical situation when a weightlifter can't handle less weight because he can lift more? Meanwhile, a similar thing happened at the Olympic Games in Tokyo with one of the outstanding Soviet weightlifters. The reason for the athlete’s failure was not an excess of force - the failure was caused by its incorrect use. The force was directed to a different, smaller weight. This, by the way, is the very psychological barrier that prevents you from breaking the record. So it is with memory. For some reason, when we absorb certain types of information, we do not remember them and ignore them. Our memorization activity is like an imitation of memorization. There can be many reasons: subjective rejection of information (it is indifferent or causes a negative attitude), the overlap of one information with another, more important one, which sometimes leads to so-called absent-mindedness. Memorizing, therefore, requires a certain mindset. And, in addition, a certain predisposition to this type of information, since a ruthless, impersonal attitude towards one’s memory will certainly ultimately affect the results. By analogy with the same sport, we can say that perfection of memory must be achieved not just by exercise, but by exercise that matches your inclinations and abilities. What are your memory abilities? Take a closer look, listen to yourself. Memory has many faces. “As many heads, so many minds.” This also applies to memory. The history of the study of memory goes back centuries. Science has accumulated a huge and varied material. Leaving aside special data for now, let’s touch on simple, almost everyday observations. A person may have a phenomenal musical memory and be unable to remember a friend's phone number. Interestingly, musical memory is perhaps one of the most common types of distinctly good memory. Here one might exclaim: “Why? Paradox...” Speaking about musical memory, one cannot help but say that the weakness of musical memory is widespread, incorrect, also wider than any other memory defects. A person has a good, obedient memory, but cannot reproduce the verse of a hackneyed song that visits him every day, or even several times a day, from every window... Can’t hear? Yes, this often coincides, but isn’t such an interpretation too simple? What if you don’t hear about numbers and their connections - then you won’t graduate from high school? What if you don’t have a hearing for your native language? Then the simplest dictation is an insurmountable barrier. Necessity often forces us to do what, it would seem, nature itself ordered us to do. There are barriers that cannot be overcome, and we overcome them. No hearing... No, it's still too simple. What if we remember everything correctly, but when playing (remembering) the melody something happens, because of which one thing not only turns into another, but loses exactly what is important and special? What if, when playing back information, it passes through some kind of filter and the quality of playback depends on the settings of this filter? We'll talk about this later. For now, let’s return to examples that are probably familiar to the reader from our own experience. So, you obviously noticed that a person is better at only one type of memory. People with well-developed visual memory memorize written texts better than those perceived by ear. The memory emerges in them in the form of a visual image. To improve memorization, a person with a motor type of memory needs to write down the text himself. A master about whom they say “golden hands”, a famous athlete, are people with developed motor memory. A ballet dancer must have both motor and musical memory. Different types of memory usually compensate for each other. Blind people tend to have good tactile memory. Why does the strengthening of one type of memory coincide with the weakening of another? Are these specialists in remembering different information working in our brain competing? If so, then it means that we process information through several channels and these channels are unevenly wide. If we consider a single channel, we will easily find that its work also contains some internal contradictions. We sometimes cannot remember what we know absolutely for sure. Moreover, the more you try to grasp the forgotten thing that was just literally on the tip of your tongue, the further it hides, only to then suddenly appear from somewhere in a hidden corner. The emotional coloring of the material contributes to its memorization. We remember grievances for a long time. Since childhood we have cherished unique moments of joy. We remember city streets or forest paths for many years if something significant for our heart was associated with them. Uninteresting and seemingly unnecessary material can be very difficult to remember. An attentive student, for example, may notice that a difficult, intractable exam course is mastered precisely when a person develops an attitude towards it. In any case, there is no doubt that emotions are needed for remembering. Experiments on animals have also proven that the emotional coloring of learning a skill by stimulating areas of the brain associated with emotions significantly speeds up memorization and makes it more durable. But the information is recorded. Now, if at the moment when it needs to be remembered, emotionally significant stimuli appear, their impact may be different. Recall of information can improve (everyone knows how sharply and clearly memory sometimes works in critical situations), but it can also simply be suppressed (“knocked out,” as they say). For now, within the limits of this article, we can say that the optimal, apparently, is an emotional background that is similar in nature to the information being remembered. But there are, however, people for whom it is the contrast of the general background and the memorized information that helps them remember better. There is nothing paradoxical about this, because the electrical stimulation of brain areas that we have already mentioned, as well as generally giving an emotional coloring to the experiment, causes, according to modern data, precisely the contrast of the stimuli that we register. It is time to remind you that this article is not called “Memory Paradoxes” by chance. Isn’t it strange that the same article contains both the assumption (almost a statement) that we remember everything or almost everything we encounter in life, and discussions about what contributes to memorization and what hinders it. What's the matter? How do these provisions fit together? This is a separate topic, for now we will limit ourselves to the fact that memorization itself, if it is passive, if our “I” does not participate in it, is the accumulation of wealth in a labyrinth, the keys to the treasuries of which are in one tangled bundle. And these keys are faceless. Now let's touch on several more factors affecting memory functions. Such factors include, for example, sleep. Everyone knows that a thought that flashed before falling asleep is remembered the next morning with extreme difficulty or is not remembered at all. Something was undoubtedly important, but what? How interesting they always are, these thoughts are half asleep - isn’t it because we are powerless to restore them exactly and work, so to speak, with the image of thought? So a poet, who did not promptly write down the lines that flashed somewhere on the outskirts of consciousness, then struggles, remembering them and rejecting everything that comes to mind (everything is wrong, not right, weak), including rejecting the very desired, only , great line. It turns out that sleep interferes with memorization. There is even an assumption, which, however, is very difficult to verify, that of all our countless dreams, we remember only those that immediately preceded waking up or even caused it. All this is probably true. Numerous animal experiments have shown, however, that sleep plays an important role in the retrieval of memory traces and, perhaps, even in memorization itself. Scientists describe two stages of sleep - “fast” and “slow”. In any case, if in an experiment an animal is woken up every time in the REM sleep phase, which is accompanied by dreams (eye movements, the so-called activated encephalogram), then if the animal is deprived of this type of sleep, leaving it with only “slow sleep” ( when there are no external manifestations of activity), then the next day it cannot reproduce what it was taught yesterday, or does it with great difficulty. It is assumed that it is in a dream that the information accumulated during the day is sorted and, so to speak, put on shelves. Only this should be a healthy, full sleep. Summarizing everything we touched on in this article, we can say that for successful memorization and subsequent reproduction of information, an attitude towards memorization and even the duration of storage of the memorized material is necessary. If we study material for an exam, we will forget it much more quickly than when we study it with a “forever” mindset. An attitude towards the material being memorized is required. Experiments show that of the amount of information offered for memorization, a person remembers only 16% of information that is indifferent to him, 80% of emotionally charged information, and 4% of that to which he could not characterize his attitude. Finally, you need to organize the material. Meaningful material is remembered nine times better than a set of words, and material retold in one’s own words is remembered more firmly than material taken in the form of ready-made phrases. And you also need a memorization technique.

The concept of “selective reading” is used in cases where the reader concentrates his attention on selected aspects of the text. The art of selective reading is that the reader discovers information through skimming; the reader must connect the subject he has in mind with a set of words he recognizes in the text. This allows him to say “this is here” or “this is not here.”

The reader can narrow their search if they have a clear idea of ​​where the information is most likely to be found; Preliminary skimming sometimes helps him understand how the text is organized.

3. Organization of material

Organizational issues are discussed in more detail in Chapter Eight. We will see that written material is sometimes organized in such a way that it is easy to locate; if the organization is of the usual type, a quick reading will reveal this.

4. Posting special information

To find such information, the same methods are used as for selective reading. Reading fluency is facilitated if information is closely tied to relevant words and their general organization can be easily recognized. However, this operation is not complete until the reader is fully confident that he has received the RIGHT information by carefully reading it.

5. Immediate check

Let's say the reader wanted to remember some facts when he finished reading, or wanted to return to a difficult point. This method works well: first, questions are formulated, and then, keeping them in mind, the text is read fluently.

6. Memorization for a long time

This is discussed in detail in Chapter Ten.

CHAPTER SEVEN PREDICTION

USING YOUR KNOWLEDGE

We will consider anticipation as an integral part of reading: how the reader predicts content when he reads, and how he can predict content even before he begins to read; in other words, how he uses the knowledge he has.

1. PREDICTION WHEN READING

Anticipation means that the reader's mind anticipates his reading of the text and prepares the ground for reading. The ability of the mind to look ahead is highly characteristic of mental activity in general. Let's take an interview as an example. As it develops, the interviewee can sense the general direction of the questions and make reliable predictions with which he prepares his answers in advance. The reader is in the same position: he gradually tunes in to the wave of the topic and begins to actively engage in prediction. This helps him prepare the ground and apply his knowledge.

Thinking and Foresight

If a person has limited ideas, then his ability to predict is limited. A reader who understands the content too narrowly limits his ability to predict and therefore does not make enough use of his existing knowledge.

There is a minimum level of anticipation even for slow readers, otherwise the reader would continually stop to decide in what sense a particular word is used. Each of us increases our reading speed as we encounter familiar phrases and expressions, the meaning of which can be predicted by the slightest sign; however, even this speed gain can be lost during unproductive reading.