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Claudus

When I was younger I took a reading test and scored just over 1,000 words per minute with 100% retention.

I remember reading an article that there were 3 types of readers.

Readers who sub-vocalize the words

Readers who "hear" the words

Readers who "see" words

Not sure if that's an accurate assessment, but I definitely don't sub-vocalize. If I sub-vocalized, I think would at least some general idea how to pronounce unusual character names from fantasy novels. I couldn't have even tried to pronounce most of the character names in Lord of the Rings, immediately after reading it but I could recognize the name patterns if I saw them.

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I am very much a sub-vocalizer, and I have no idea how to pronounce a lot of fantasy words. What I find I do is I just don't sub-vocalize that word. I don't even think about it, I just don't have a way of pronouncing the word, so I "skip" it. Subsequently, I honestly couldn't tell you, were we to have a conversation about that story, what that word was. My comprehension of names I can't sub-vocalize is dismal compared to my comprehension of a) names I can and b) larger story concepts and whatnot that I can largely sub-vocalize.

When reading Crime and Punishment in school, I remember specifically saying, "I have no idea how to pronounce a whole bunch of stuff in here and I'm going to need to talk about it, so I'm going to specifically come up with a pronunciation." Without that conscious effort, I simply wouldn't have tried to vocalize the names whatsoever, despite that being my standard method of reading.

And to be clear, I can not sub-vocalize, but it's just... uncomfortable.

I'm just like you. I don't sub-vocalize or hear words when reading and I can consequently read significantly faster than people speak (I'm assuming most people read at this rate if they're 'hearing' words -- though I'm actually not sure).

I have the exact same experience with character names -- that's a great example.

The article claims everyone sub-vocalizes, but I have to agree that this is not possible, the brain can adapt to many types of information sources, and I'm pretty sure born deaf people can read and comprehend without any problems.

I do sub-vocalize though so I guess I'm a lost cause :)

I had always equated sub-vocalize and "hear" the words. What is the difference?

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