Whether you’re new to speed reading or have been practicing your techniques for a while, you’re sure to come across mention of saccades in your training. Understanding what these are and how they affect reading speed is an important factor in improving your ability to read quickly and smoothly.

Although we use the word “smoothly” in the paragraph above, the truth is that your eyes don’t really move smoothly at all when you read. Instead, they move in a pattern of stops and starts, usually called fixations and saccades. A saccade is a “jump” your eyes make between words as you read, or rather between the fixations where your eyes are focused on one particular spot in the text. This is a normal part of the reading process.

Where speed readers differ from regular readers is in the direction of the saccades, and the amount of distance between one fixation and the next. Although in general up to a quarter of all saccades are backwards jumps to previous words, a good speed reader has trained their eyes to keep moving forward. Getting over the habit of regression will do wonders for your reading speed.

Another aspect of saccades that distinguishes speed readers from the general reading public is the amount of information the reader is able to take in with each fixation. Widening the visual focus will increase the number of words and letters in each stop, which means the distance between the stops can be greater. If the amount of time in each saccade remains the same, but you’re stopping twice per line instead of five times per line, you’re obviously going faster as a reader.

The 7 Speed Reading program will teach you how to eliminate regression and widen your focus, so that you’re reading in the most efficient manner possible.

Reference: K. Rayner and G. McConkie, “The span of the effective stimulus during a fixation in reading.” Perception and Psychophysics (1975).