Why do I tend to not retain information while I read a book aloud?

[caesar13]

This happens, or at least, feels like that to me. Any input on this?

[Oeaohoo]

Personally, if I am reading something that I really want to internalise and integrate I will first read it aloud and then re-read and mull over it internally. Reading something aloud is more helpful for attaining a superficial understanding of something - because your eyes, ears and mouth are all processing the same information - whereas mulling over it internally is a better way to understand its full ramifications and its relationship to the context of the book and your understanding as a whole.

Maybe you haven't yet mastered speech and enunciation in general: if you are focusing on these then you'll likely be too busy focusing on speaking the words rather than understanding them!

[Sine]

If you read it out loud to others it could be because you are occupied with what they will think about you/your voice/your way of reading instead of the story/the information

[gettoefl]

reading aloud is grossly ineffective for information retention, even speaking the words as you read needs to be eliminated

[Tyler Robinson]

Your mind gets occupied with reading it aloud instead of absorbing the content of what you're reading. 

[Yarco]

In your head, you can most efficiently absorb the information. It's going in at exactly the right pace for you, in the way you understand.

When you read aloud you have to almost take the words in and translate them back out for other people. You have slow the pace down to your speaking voice, which is probably less words per minute than you can read, which creates a weird lag/buffer effect and makes you read at a non-optimal speed for your brain. You also can't mumble and take shortcuts that you'd normally take in your head, you have to increase the clarity or people won't be able to understand.

It takes at least 2x the mental bandwidth to have information going both in and out of you at once. Think of download vs upload speed on a modem. Part of that extra bandwidth gets pulled from the part of your brain that would normally be comprehending and storing what you read. When you read aloud you act more like a conduit and the words pass through you without getting absorbed.

Edited June 27, 2022 by Yarco

[caesar13]

Ah. Nice points! Makes sense to me now.

Thanks everyone. I'll try "not to" read aloud from now on.

Edited June 27, 2022 by caesar13
Forgot to thank all repliers

[Tyler Robinson]

2 minutes ago, caesar13 said:

Ah. Nice points! Makes sense to me now.

Thanks everyone. I'll try "not to" read aloud from now on.

It's fine, you could read loud sometimes. I pause a bit just to absorb and keep up with the stuff. 

 

[caesar13]

@Tyler Robinson Alright. 

What about highlighting while reading on a tablet? I feel like I'm slowing down due to frequent highlighting of important text - but can't avoid marking some text as the text can sometimes be really so important that I need to revisit it.

[Tyler Robinson]

Just now, caesar13 said:

@Tyler Robinson Alright. 

What about highlighting while reading on a tablet? I feel like I'm slowing down due to frequent highlighting of important text - but can't avoid marking some text as the text can sometimes be really so important that I need to revisit it.

Oh yes please do that. That helps to retain important information you have read. The brain has a natural tendency to constantly filter out information that is not very useful. Since almost more than 50% of the information we consume is either not quite as useful as we thought it would be or it is simply redundant, the brain has a vital role to play in consuming and filtering such information. So what you're doing by highlighting important text is actually helping your brain to consume and important information. That's a good habit. 

[caesar13]

Okay! I'm on the right track!