PhotoReading is a reading system that claims to enable you to get through printed material at lightning speeds of 25,000 words per minute. Developed by Paul R Scheele of the Learning Strategies Corporation, this ‘whole-mind system’ relies on subconscious processing of written information rather than conscious assimilation as with normal reading and speed reading. Our subconscious mind can apparently absorb every little detail in the text, not by reading or scanning the lines, but by mentally photographing a page every second.
Sounds fascinating, doesn’t it? Indeed vast numbers of people have been drawn in by promises that they’ll be able to read and comprehend a book in 5 minutes. But don’t be fooled – the apparent ‘success’ of PhotoReading is driven less by fact than by expert marketing. In reality, this technique does not live up to all the hype.
Being able to flip through and ‘photograph’ a book at a page per second seems impressive, and indeed you may become more efficient at getting through material. But are you really absorbing the meaning at 25,000 words a minute? There is little hard evidence to suggest so. For this reason there is a great deal of skepticism surrounding the system of photoreading. It’s referred to as ‘pseudoscience’ with no existing research or systematic studies to fully back it up. All the scientific talk about brainwaves and how it operates in relation to the human brain’s cerebral hemispheres is just that – talk. Most of the available information on PhotoReading actually comes from marketing, advertising materials and testimonials. Even reviews of PhotoReading appear to come from a marketing standpoint rather than from an actual user’s angle.
It’s important to point out that the only study that has so far been conducted on PhotoReading concluded that “PhotoReading does not lead to successful and/or rapid comprehension of written text” (McNamara, 2000). It also indicated that PhotoReading may be detrimental to readers because it instils a false belief that they have understood the text. People may believe their reading goals have been accomplished, when in reality this is far from the case.
What’s more, according to the accepted theories of reading comprehension (e.g. Kintsch, 1998), successful comprehension using the PhotoReading technique should not be possible. When you PhotoRead, you’re essentially shutting off the conscious mind from the learning cycle, however, the conscious mind is essential for stimulating your short and long-term memory. True comprehension requires your mind to be engaged and this requires conscious attention and strategic processing (e.g. McNamara & Scott, 1999).
Despite this, there are people who emphatically believe the system works and claim to have experienced benefits through using it. However, they have generally had to stick at it for several months before they achieved real results, in contrast to advertising which states that PhotoReading only takes a few weeks to master.
What Users Say About Photoreading
These users say they ‘feel’ like they store the information when they PhotoRead but there is little evidence to show that they can recall and use it better. In all likelihood, any benefits gained from the system are most likely to arise from the general learning techniques you are taught during the Preview and Rapid Reading stages as opposed to the actual one page per second PhotoReading step (as claimed by proponents of the system).
Photoreading Conclusions
If you’re interested in learning PhotoReading, be warned that it has serious limitations. It’s a costly system and you’ll still need to put in a great deal of work to experience results. Even then, you’re unlikely to achieve the effects that are advertised. So if you want to read faster, save yourself time and money by skipping PhotoReading and learn speed reading instead.