From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue Feb 18 2003 - 13:02:09 MST
On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Greg Jordan wrote:
> I wonder if subvocalization is really a problem for speed. I know a blind
> guy who listens to the Web & email via a machine reader - and he has the
> speed turned up so fast I couldn't even make out it was speech. It's
> marvelous - he can process speech at a much faster rate than anyone can
> speak in natural language.
Greg, I think it is generally accepted that one can listen to speech
at a rate about 3x what one can speak it at. There was at one time
a tape recorder that would record at 1x, then cut out 2/3 of the
recording and play it back at 3x (you have to do this because simply
playing it back at 3x results in a rise in pitch that makes it very
difficult to understand the voices). Surprisingly this approach
actually worked allowing one to listen at 3x normal speaking speed.
I suspect your friend may have developed a similar or even better
ability to listen at higher than normal rate speaking speeds.
Robert
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