https://betterhumans.pub/slow-reading-is-the-new-deep-learning-452f179c0289

注：中文全部为机器翻译，主要目的不是提供内容，而是提高内容在中文世界的可发现性。

早在1959年，当伊芙琳 · 伍德第一次参加她的速读课程时，我还只是一个年轻人。多年来，我一直痴迷于尽快完成我的阅读任务，这样我就可以进入生活中有趣的部分。很明显，带着这种态度，在我的 k-12学年里，我并不是一个好学生。幸运的是，我彻底改变了这种状况。伊夫林 · 伍德的阅读动力学课程轰动一时。以至于肯尼迪政府派遣工作人员参加这个课程。约翰 · 肯尼迪(错误地)被说成是一个快速阅读者。即使在伍德女士去世多年之后，这门课程仍然存在。

大约六年前，一大批快速阅读应用突然出现，并迅速走红。其中大多数是基于快速连续视觉呈现(RSVP)的概念。这些应用程序控制你的眼睛看到什么，并消除了我们回顾刚刚读过的文字的自然过程，即所谓的回归，重读它们。问题是，这些回归是阅读理解的关键之一。想象一下，你的头脑有哪怕一秒钟的漂移，你的眼睛被挡住，不能回头看你刚刚读到的文字。

这是用 RSVP 消除回归的一个例子。

这是一个来自开源快速阅读应用 Zethos 的例子，它利用 RSVP 来消除回归。

快速阅读训练的其他策略包括指导消除默读ーー也就是我们对所读单词的读音进行思考的方式。事实上，我们做的不仅仅是简单地想象声音。当我们阅读的时候，我们的舌头和发声器官也会做出微妙的、经常是察觉不到的动作。我们通常不能察觉到潜音，但是实验室的电极传感器可以检测到它们。尽管快速阅读者最慎重的努力去抑制默念，它们是不可能消除的，即使我们可以，我们也不会真的想要消除它们！它们是我们用来处理和理解所读内容的自然机制的重要组成部分。毕竟，阅读并不是简单地从一页纸上吸取文字进入我们的大脑。这是一个复杂得多的过程，其核心是涉及到语言理解。

用吸尘器把一页纸上的文字吸进你的记忆。

不幸的是，我们不能简单地把纸上的文字吸出来，放进我们的长期记忆里。

典型的受过教育的成年人每天的阅读量在250-400 WPM 之间。快速阅读者渴望双倍，三倍，甚至大规模提高他们的基础阅读速度。一篇又一篇的研究论文得出的结论是，由于努力的快速阅读，阅读速度提高了，理解力下降了。快速阅读有它的用例。当你想要浏览和获得文本的大意时，使用它(如果你有能力的话)是明智的。但是，当你的目标是获取知识的时候，略读是没有意义的。底线: 理解力随着阅读速度的提高而降低。最终，你只是略读了一下。

但是，大多数批评家在抨击快速阅读时，忽略了一个更为深刻的问题。以学习为目的的阅读远不止是达到简单的理解。理解并不等同于知识的获得。你必须运用元认知。为了启用和激活支持阅读时获取知识的过程，您必须慢慢阅读。如果你是为了学习而阅读，你需要参与到内容中，并将新的概念与你现有的知识联系起来。只有这样，你才能在你的头脑中安装新的知识，并能够在未来利用这些知识。你必须做工作去学习，而且“工作”必须是正确地完成的工作。

慢速阅读是学者的专利，你慢速阅读的次数越多，你的知识基础就会扩大得越多。

如果你想大量扩展你的知识，成为一个贪婪的慢读者。

我以前写过关于如何阅读学术内容并永远记住它的文章。在这里，我们将回顾如何放慢阅读速度和有意识地学习。但首先，我要教你们我们的大脑如何获得新的知识和记忆。

我们如何学习新事物

中央执行官

视觉空间画板

语音回路

从系统的独立运行

情景缓冲

海马体

只有通过慢速阅读才能达到深度学习

如何阅读元认知

我们如何学习新事物

以下是从认知心理学的角度对学习和记忆最广为接受的科学观点的概述。请注意，对于每一个被提议的，甚至是被大力支持的模型，在科学界总是有相反的观点。其他理解记忆如何工作的模型正在不断地被提出。这部分是为好奇的人谁想看看在引擎盖下，并了解我们如何学习。

我以前写过关于记忆和学习如何工作的文章，我主要从神经科学的角度来看，但是这里我们将从认知心理学的角度来看记忆和学习。

当我们在世界上遇到经验时，我们最初将信息储存在感官记忆中。感官记忆接收所有感官输入的总和，它是一个势不可挡的数据洪流。想象一下，有一分钟你走进一个体育场，在一瞬间，你会看到成千上万的面孔聚集在一起，远处还有成千上万的模糊面孔。与此同时，还有大量的非视觉感官输入。有各种各样的气味。你也在同一瞬间经历其他的感觉输入，比如你的平衡感、触觉、本体感觉、振动和温度。你如何在你的余生中持续存储这些海量的数据输入？你愿意吗？感觉记忆的输入是势不可挡的，幸运的是，它的半衰期很短。你一次只能存储不到一秒的时间，它就会消失。最好是我们99.99% 的感官记忆在一瞬间消失。为了生存和享受美好的生活，我们不需要对我们的生活进行完整的高分辨率的经验性记录。

一小部分感官记忆存活下来并转化为短期记忆。短期记忆也是短暂的，持续时间大约在10秒到30秒之间。在某些情况下，它可能持续一分钟。短期记忆的能力是极其有限的。关于这种能力极限的典型研究在哈佛大学教授乔治 · 米勒的经典论文《神奇的数字7，正负2... 》中达到了顶峰。他提出，我们只能记住七件事情，比如电话号码的数字，只能记住几秒钟。这个极限是我们所有人都能感同身受的人类体验。

如果一个新的记忆非常重要，超过了几秒钟，它可能会储存在你的长期记忆中，也许你会记住一辈子。但它是如何到达那里的呢？(稍后再详谈。)

我刚才描述的是 Atkinson-Shiffrin 内存模型或者多存储模型。但是今天，认知心理学对记忆的工作原理有了更深入的理解。

存储器的多存储模型

存储器的多存储模型

让我们花几分钟时间讨论对多存储模型的一个重要增强。工作记忆模型(WMM) ，由 Baddely 和 Hitch 在1974年首次提出。在随后的几十年里，它得到了进一步的发展，直到今天，它仍然被广泛接受，并得到了大量可靠的研究支持。WMM 重新定义了多存储模型的短期内存部分，并将其分解为一系列组件。

工作记忆是高级认知功能最深刻的属性之一。它是实现目标的关键。工作记忆是对信息的短期存储，它与我们当前正在做的事情和下一步将要做的事情有关。我们利用工作记忆和其他高级认知功能，如认知灵活性(在不同任务和概念之间转换的能力)来帮助我们决定完成任务的最佳方法。具体来说，我们把工作记忆和其他高级认知功能结合起来作为工具。这些工具使我们能够整合我们当前的外部经验，恢复长期记忆和知识。我们利用这些信息来解释、分析、操纵和做出判断，从而塑造我们的行为。

工作记忆模型说明及其在记忆工作中的适用性。

工作记忆模型增强了我们对短期记忆的理解。工作记忆是我们利用中央执行机制集中注意力的地方。语音循环允许我们短暂地存储和回放传入的听觉信息。视觉空间画板允许我们简单地存储和重放传入的视觉信息。情景缓冲区是我们处理想法、新输入和记忆的地方。它是“我们长期 ROM 的随机存储器”，被认为是工作记忆和长期记忆之间的连接器。

WMM 完善了我们对短期记忆的理解，以及记忆是如何储存在长期记忆中的。最初的 WMM 描述了三个部分: 中央执行系统，以及两个所谓的“从系统”: 视空间画板和语音环路。自1974年以来，WMM 得到了扩展和完善。这里是我们目前对工作记忆理解的概述和总结。

中央执行官

中央执行系统是一个多方面的系统，“监督”工作记忆的控制。它使我们能够将注意力集中在当前感兴趣的“事物”上，同时抑制其他不相关的“事物”

中央执行机构的说明，集中注意力和分流。

这些“事物”可以是外部世界中的某种东西，也可以是内部实体，如记忆或概念。它也使我们有能力协调多个任务之间的表现，因为在我们的现代日常生活中，我们很少只做一件事。我们必须能够同时应用多种记忆或学到的概念。最后，它使我们能够检索长期记忆，这样我们就可以应用并处理这些检索到的记忆，以实现我们当前的目标。

视觉空间画板

视觉空间画板通常被称为“心灵之眼”，是第一个“从属系统”

视觉空间画板插图。

画板是你在脑海中想象当前经历或视觉记忆的地方。例如，如果我要求你描述走过你的房子的经验，你会在你的“心灵的眼睛”描绘它，因为你描述它。这个画板由两部分组成。有一个可视缓存，存储但不处理光学信息。

此外，还有内在的记录器，可以排练和重放视觉、空间和运动数据。它把它传递给中央行政部门。我们理所当然地认为，我们拥有这种神奇的能力，能够用“心灵之眼”将我们的视觉记忆形象化，但是有些人，无论是基于后天获得的基础，如大脑创伤，还是基于先天基础，患有失语症，无法想象已经逝去的爱人或日出。

语音回路

语音回路也由两部分组成: 语音存储的听觉记忆痕迹在大约两秒钟内迅速衰减，以及我们利用发音过程延长存储的听觉痕迹的寿命。

语音回路图解。

发音过程用于“排练”，包括“内心声音”和“内耳”之间的“内部对话”

想想你是如何一遍又一遍地默念一个电话号码，直到你找到一支笔，把它写下来。存储中最多2秒的“磁带”的限制可能是7 +/-2规则的基础。

从系统的独立运行

有趣的是，这两个从系统的运行几乎就好像它们存在于一个多微处理器 CPU 的不同核心上。他们每个人一次只能处理一个任务，不能同时处理多个任务。但是因为它们是位于大脑解剖学上不同区域的独立系统，它们可以在各自的任务上并行运作。

这就是为什么，例如，我们可能很难记住一个电话号码告诉我们在嘈杂的咖啡馆: 语音循环已经参与由于背景声音。但是，我们可以很容易地同时回忆起爱人的声音和面孔，因为这些任务分别利用两个奴隶系统。由于这些系统位于不同的解剖区域，我们也可以通过研究只影响一个从属系统的脑损伤患者来证明它们的分离性。对脑损伤患者的研究在认知心理学中被广泛用于定位功能所在的位置。

情景缓冲

第四个组件是在2000年添加到 WMM 的。幕式缓冲器还没有得到与前三个组件相同程度的验证，但是看起来总体上是可靠的。

缓冲区的容量有限，可以作为存储连贯叙述的机制，将语音循环、视觉空间画板或者其他来源的输入整合在一起。它添加了各种按时间顺序排列的时间戳，以创建一个几乎像电影一样的记录。

我们有意识地进入情节缓冲区，这样我们就可以利用它的内容来帮助完成当前的任务。情景缓冲也可能是记忆在短期和长期储存之间交换的基础。

海马体

海马体是大脑颞叶的一部分，它对短时记忆(存储在情景缓冲区中)转化为长时记忆至关重要。如果你的海马体像亨利 · 莫莱森那样被移除，你将无法创造新的长期记忆。

长期记忆的例证。

我们的工作记忆只有一小部分被长期储存起来。这通过一个称为整合的过程发生。当我们不那么积极地参与物质的时候，巩固似乎是最好的，比如当我们睡觉、放松或散步的时候。在这段时间内，海马体内的各种过程潜意识地将情节缓冲物的内容编码到新皮层。这种重复创造了新的突触连接，并加强了现有的连接，创造了被称为记忆痕迹的小组神经元，它们作为一个单元存储记忆。此外，这些记忆痕迹也被编码在前额叶区---- 大脑的一个区域，这个区域能够提高执行功能，突出了我们的记忆对于塑造我们在复杂任务中的行为是多么重要。

只有通过慢速阅读才能达到深度学习

现在我们已经对记忆是如何工作的有了一个良好的基础和理解，我们可以集中讨论为什么慢速阅读对于深度学习是必要的。

我们一开始就说过，“为知识而阅读”不是简单地用吸尘器吸取书页上的单词，然后“砰!”，想法，事实，和概念将得到归档，在您的长期记忆和可用的未来使用。事实上，快速阅读拥护者吹捧的成功的障碍是在快速阅读时保持足够的理解力。撇开他们的说法是不真实的不说，这个标准太低了。

最终，为知识而阅读应该导致获得持久的、持久的知识，这些知识可以在未来用于解决生活的挑战，创造新的想法和综合新的解决方案。仅仅理解和获得持久知识之间的差距是一个跨越鸿沟的飞跃。

如果你被要求写下你所学到的东西，或者这本书是关于什么的，你在哪里读过多少本书，你连一张纸都填不满？我敢打赌，你读过的很多书中，只能说，像伍迪 · 艾伦(Woody Allen)那样，“它涉及到俄罗斯”，但不会再多了。

将概念性的理解转化为知识需要时间。使用像“每分钟字数”这样的简单指标可以计算出更多的时间我们学到的所有新的事实和概念都需要与我们现有的知识结合起来。我们的头脑中有一个知识网络，类似于互联网。增加我们的知识需要在我们已经知道的事物上建立新的心理联系。

通过慢慢阅读，你可以留出必要的时间来雇佣你的中央执行官。你需要集中注意力，利用语音回路和视觉空间模板。你所遇到的新的想法、概念和事实必须被移动到情节缓冲区中，在那里你可以玩弄和操纵它们。你可以对工作记忆进行的最好的操作就是元认知。

当你阅读的时候一定要运用你的元认知能力。

当你阅读的时候一定要运用你的元认知能力。

元认知通常被描述为“思考你的思维”但这只是故事的一部分。元认知也是有目的地自我调节你做什么来提高你的学习。

例如，当你阅读的时候，你应该有一个内部对话，用你的内部声音(语音循环)来保证你所看到和阅读的单词的质量(视觉空间画板)。当你阅读的时候，你应该有意识地问自己一些问题，比如: “我是不是注意力集中了，或者我的思想偏离了方向?”“这说得通吗?”“我已经知道什么来支持或反驳这个观点?”既然这个概念不清楚，我应该怎样做才能更好地理解这个概念等等。

然后，你应该利用这种自我审问的结果来规范你下一步的行动，掌握这些材料。虽然研究没有完全肯定这一点，但是中央执行和工作记忆的组成部分是元认知监控和自我调节装置的核心。

如何阅读元认知

为了激发元认知所需的内部对话，举一些例子来说明你在阅读时可以用来激发内部对话的问题，可能会有所帮助。

你可以把下面这组问题作为备忘单和培养皿，用来扩展你自己的元认知问题目录。

这是我想要或需要记住的东西吗？

这是否让我想起了另一个不相关的知识领域？

我还能想到其他与这个概念相矛盾的事情吗？

还有什么我已经知道的事情支持这个概念的真实性？

我能想到这方面的实际例子吗？

这是我第一次遇到这种有价值的知识吗？

我还在哪里遇到过这种想法？

以前还有谁教过我这个？

我有多确定这是真的和正确的？

这和我已经知道的其他事情有关吗？

在生活中，我还能在哪里找到这样的例子呢？

你还想到了什么其他相关的概念？

对我来说理解这一点有多难？

如果这是一个什么，那么我能解释为什么吗？

这些信息如何应用到我的生活中？

为什么知道这些很重要？

关于这个话题我还知道些什么？

关于这个主题，我还想学些什么？

我完全明白这一点吗？

我能把它分解成更小的部分吗？

我该怎么向一个孩子解释呢？

这和我所知道的关于这个主题的其他事情有什么关系呢？

这个消息可靠吗？

这完全可信吗？

如果有什么让我感到惊讶的话，那就是什么？

这很容易理解吗？

我觉得这有趣吗? 为什么？

我怎样才能把它应用到现实世界中呢？

为什么知道这些很重要？

我是否有兴趣了解更多这方面的信息？

因为这个原因，我还想了解更多什么？

这对我来说意味着什么？

为了更好地理解这一点，我是否需要咨询其他来源？

这给我带来了什么问题？

这有什么更广泛的含义吗？

为什么这很重要？

我还能用什么其他方式来表达这个概念呢？

这有没有让你想起什么例子呢？

我想永远记住这些吗？

我是否应该咨询其他来源？

我该如何简明扼要地总结这一点呢？

我相信你在某种程度上应用了元认知，但是有些人100% 被动地阅读，却得不到任何回报。当你阅读的时候，试着有意识地问自己更多的问题。自言自语吧！

当你花时间阅读材料时，元认知阅读会让你放慢速度。但是慢速阅读是一种更深刻的阅读体验，它是大多数精英学习者使用的方法论。

我敦促你拥抱慢读，努力读很多好书，慢慢地，深入地读。

快速阅读有助于略读，但有损于理解。

慢速阅读是深度学习的途径。但我们不是在讨论慢速被动阅读。精英学习者之所以能够成功地进行慢速阅读，是因为他们通过元认知积极地参与阅读材料。他们利用自己的工作记忆进行内部对话，以控制自己阅读文本的体验。他们的注意力不仅集中在页面上，还集中在情景缓冲上，在这里他们操纵概念和质量保证体验。他们决定了这些材料与他们现有的知识和心智模型的匹配程度。他们通过自我调节和跟踪来填补在阅读过程中发现的学习空白。

慢速阅读是为深度学习者准备的。如果你打算花时间读书获取知识，那就花时间去做这些工作，让你的钱物有所值。

如果你想大量扩展你的知识，成为一个贪婪的慢读者。

Slow-Reading is the New Deep Learning

I was just a youth when Evelyn Wood debuted her speed-reading course back in 1959. For years, I was fascinated with the prospect of getting my reading assignments over with as quickly as possible so that I could get on to the fun part of life. Obviously, with this attitude, I wasn’t much of a student during my K–12 years. Fortunately, I massively turned that around. The Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics course became a huge sensation. So much so that the Kennedy White House sent staff members to take the course. JFK was (falsely) said to be a speed-reader. The course still exists, even years after Ms. Wood’s passing.

About six years ago, a spate of speed-reading apps suddenly appeared and went viral. Most of them are based upon the concept of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP). These apps control what your eyes see and eliminate the natural process where we glance back at words we just read, so-called regressions, to reread them. The problem is that these regressions are one of the keys to reading comprehension. Imagine that your mind drifts for even a split second, and your eyes are blocked from glancing back at the words that you just read.

Other strategies of speed-reading training include coaching to eliminate subvocalizations—the way we think out the sounds of the words we’re reading. In fact, we do more than simply think of the sounds. We also make subtle, often imperceptible movements of our tongue and vocal apparatus as we read. We usually can’t perceive subvocalizations, but electrode sensors in the lab can detect them. Despite even the most deliberate effort of speed-readers to quash subvocalizations, they are impossible to eliminate, and we wouldn’t really want to eliminate them even if we could! They are an essential part of the natural mechanism we use to process and comprehend what we read. Reading, after all, is not the simple vacuuming of words from a page into our brains. It’s is a far more complex process — involving, at its very core, language comprehension.

The typical educated adult reads somewhere between 250–400 WPM. Speed-readers aspire to double, triple, or even massively increase their base reading rate. Research paper after research paper has concluded that as reading speed goes up as a result of effortful speed-reading, comprehension goes down. Speed-reading has its use case. It’s sensible to use it (if you’re capable) when you want to skim and get the gist of a text. But it doesn’t make sense to skim-read when your goal is to acquire knowledge. Bottom line: comprehension goes down as your reading speed goes up. It eventually gets to the point that you’re really just skimming.

But there is a far more profound issue at hand that most critics overlook when they bash speed-reading. Reading with the intention of learning involves far more than achieving simple comprehension. Comprehension is not equivalent to knowledge acquisition. You must employ metacognition. You have to read slowly in order to enable and activate the processes that support knowledge acquisition as you read. If you’re reading to learn, you need to engage with the content and associate the new concepts with your existing knowledge. Only then can you install new knowledge in your mind and be able to utilize this knowledge in the future. You have to do the work to learn, and “the work” has to be the right work done correctly.

Slow-reading is for scholars. The more slow-reading you do, the more your knowledge base will expand.

If you want to massively expand your knowledge, become a voracious slow reader.

I’ve written before about how to read academic content and remember it forever. Here we’re going to review how to slow read and intentionally learn. But first, I am going to teach you how our minds acquire new knowledge and memories.

How We Learn New Things
The central executive
The visuospatial sketchpad
The phonological loop
The independent operation of the slave systems
The episodic buffer
The hippocampusYou Can Only Achieve Deep Learning by Slow-ReadingHow to Read Metacognitively

How We Learn New Things

What follows is an outline of the most widely accepted scientific views of learning and memory from a cognitive psychology perspective. Please be aware that for every proposed and even heavily supported model, there are always contrary views in the scientific community. Other models for understanding how memory works are continuously being proposed. This section is for the curious who want to take a look under-the-hood and understand how we learn.

I’ve written before about how memory and learning work where I took a mostly neuroscience perspective, but here we’re going to look at memory and learning from a cognitive psychology point of view.

As we encounter experiences in the world, we store information initially in Sensory Memory. Sensory memory receives the sum total of all sensory input, and it’s an overwhelming firehose of data. Imagine for a minute walking into a stadium and in a split second seeing a thousand faces come into focus, and many more thousands of blurry faces in the distance. At the same time, there is a massive amount of non-visual sensory input. There are all kinds of smells. You are also experiencing other sensory inputs in the same instant such as your sense of balance, touch, proprioception, vibration, and temperature. How can you store this continuous massive data input for the rest of your life? Would you even want to? Sensory memory input is overwhelming and fortunately, it has a very short half-life. You can only store less than a second of it at a time before it vanishes. It’s probably best that 99.99% of our sensory memory evaporates in a split second. We don’t need a complete high-resolution experiential recording of our lives in order to survive and enjoy a wonderful life.

A small percentage of sensory memory does survive and is passed to short-term memory. Short-term memory is also fleeting, lasting somewhere on the order of 10 seconds up to 30 seconds. In certain circumstances, it may last up to a minute. Short-term memory is extremely limited in capacity. The canonical research of this capacity limit culminated in the classical paper “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two…” by Harvard Professor George Miller. He proposed that we can only remember about seven things, such as the digits of a phone number, for only a few fleeting seconds. This limit is a human experience to which we can all relate.

If a new memory is important enough to remember beyond a few seconds, it may get stored in your long-term memory, and perhaps you will remember it for a lifetime. But how does it get there? (More about this later.)

What I’ve just described is the Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model or Multi-Store Model of memory. But today, cognitive psychology has a much deeper understanding of how memory works.

Let’s discuss for a few minutes an important enhancement to the Multi-Store Model. The Working Memory Model (WMM), initially proposed by Baddely and Hitch in 1974. It has been enhanced over the subsequent decades and even today it is well-accepted and has a lot of solid research to support it. The WMM redefines the short-term memory portion of the Multi-Store Model and breaks it into a series of components.

Working memory is one of the most profound attributes of higher cognitive functioning. It is critical for achieving goals. Working memory is short-term storage of information, which is relevant to what we are currently doing and what we’ll do next. We employ our working memory in conjunction with other higher cognitive functions such as cognitive flexibility (the ability to shift between different tasks and concepts) to help us decide on the best approach to complete tasks. Specifically, we use working memory in conjunction with other higher cognitive functions as tools. These tools enable us to integrate our current external experiences and revive long-term memories and knowledge. We take that information and use it to interpret, analyze, manipulate, and make judgments to shape our behavior.

The WMM has refined our understanding of short-term memory and how memories get stored in long-term memory. The original WMM described three components: The Central Executive, and two so-called “slave systems”: The Visuospatial Sketchpad and The Phonological Loop. Since 1974 the WMM has been expanded and refined. Here is an overview and summary of our current understanding of working memory.

The central executive

The central executive is a multi-faceted system that “oversees” control of working memory. It enables us to focus our attention on the current “thing” of interest while suppressing other irrelevant “things.”

These “things” could be something in the external world or they could be an internal entity such as a memory or concept. It also enables our capability to coordinate performance between several tasks, because in our modern daily lives we are very rarely only doing one thing. We have to be capable of applying multiple memories or learned concepts simultaneously. Finally, it enables us to retrieve long-term memories, so that we can apply and work with these retrieved memories to achieve our current goals.

The visuospatial sketchpad

Commonly referred to as “the mind’s eye”, the visuospatial sketchpad is the first of the “slave systems.”

The sketchpad is where you mentally visualize a current experience or a visual memory. For example, if I ask you to describe the experience of walking through your house, you will picture it in your “mind’s eye” as you describe it. This sketchpad is comprised of two components. There is a visual cache that stores but does not process optical information.

Additionally, there is the inner scribe that rehearses and replays visual, spatial, and motion data. It passes it along to the central executive. We take for granted that we have this magical ability to be able to visualize our optical memories with “the mind’s eye”, but some people, either on an acquired basis such as brain trauma or on a congenital basis, suffer from aphantasia and can’t visualize a departed loved one or a sunrise.

The phonological loop

The phonological loop is also comprised of two parts: a phonological store of auditory memory traces that rapidly decays in about two seconds and an articulatory process that we utilize to prolong the life of auditory traces in the store.

The articulatory process is used for “rehearsal”, consisting of an “internal dialog” between our “inner voice” and our “inner ear.”

Think of how you silently repeat a phone number over and over until you can find a pen and write it down. This limit of up to 2 seconds of “tape” in the store is probably the basis of the 7 +/- 2 rule.

The independent operation of the slave systems

It’s interesting that the two slave systems operate almost as if they exist on separate cores on a multi-microprocessor CPU. They each can handle only one task at a time and cannot multitask. But because they are separate systems located in anatomically distinct regions of the brain, they can function in parallel on their own tasks.

This is why, for example, we may struggle to remember a phone number told to us in a noisy cafe: the phonological loop is already engaged due to the background sounds. But we can easily recall the voice and face of a loved one at the same time since these tasks separately utilize the two slave systems. Because these systems reside in different anatomic regions, we can also prove their separateness by studying patients with brain lesions which only affect one of the slave systems. The study of patients with brain lesions is widely used in cognitive psychology to localize where functionality resides.

The episodic buffer

A fourth component was added to the WMM in 2000. The Episodic Buffer has not yet received the same degree of validation as the first three components but does appear to be generally sound.

The buffer has a limited capacity and serves as a mechanism for storing a coherent narrative that integrates the inputs from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and perhaps other sources. It adds chronological timestamps of sorts to create an almost movie-like record.

We consciously access the episodic buffer so we can use its content to assist the completion of the current task. The episodic buffer may also underlie how memories are exchanged between short and long-term stores.

The hippocampus

The hippocampus—a part of the brain in the temporal lobe—is essential for the conversion of short-term memory (stored in the episodic buffer) into long-term memory. If your hippocampi were removed like Henry Molaison’s, you would be incapable of creating new long-term memories.

Only a small portion of our working memory makes the trip into long-term storage. This occurs through a process called consolidation. Consolidation seems to happen best when we are not as actively engaged with the material, such as when we’re sleeping, relaxing, or taking a walk. Subconsciously, during these times, various processes within the hippocampi replay and ‘encode’ the contents of the episodic buffer to the neocortex. This repetition creates new synaptic connections and strengthens existing connections to create small groups of neurons known as engrams, which together as a unit store the memory. Furthermore, these engrams are also encoded in the prefrontal areas, the region of the brain which enables higher executive functioning, highlighting how important our memories are to shaping our behavior in complex tasks.

You Can Only Achieve Deep Learning by Slow-Reading

Now that we have a good foundation and understanding of how memory works, we can focus on why slow-reading is necessary to achieve deep learning.

We said at the beginning that “reading for knowledge” doesn’t happen by simply vacuuming the words of the page and “bam!”, the ideas, facts, and concepts will get filed in your long-term memory and available for future use. In fact, the bar for success touted by speed-reading advocates is the maintenance of adequate comprehension as you speed-read. Putting aside that their claims are untrue, that bar is too low.

Ultimately, reading for knowledge should result in acquiring durable, lasting knowledge that can be used in the future to solve life’s challenges, create new ideas, and synthesize novel solutions. The gap between mere comprehension and the acquisition of durable knowledge is a leap across a chasm.

How many books have you read where if you were asked to write about what you learned, or what the book is about, you couldn’t fill a single sheet of paper? I bet that there are quite a lot of books you’ve read where you could only say, like Woody Allen, “it involves Russia,” but not much more.

Converting conceptual understanding into knowledge requires time. More time than can be calculated using a simple metric like “words per minute.” All new facts and concepts we learn need to be integrated with our existing knowledge. We have a web of knowledge in our minds, akin to the internet. Adding to our knowledge requires making new mental connections to what we already know.

By reading slowly, you allow for the requisite time to employ your central executive. You need to focus your attention, utilize the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad. New ideas, concepts and facts you’re encountering must be moved into the episodic buffer where you can play with and manipulate them. And the best kind of manipulation you can employ with your working memory is metacognition.

Metacognition is often described as “thinking about your thinking.” But that is only part of the story. Metacognition is also about purposely self-regulating what you do to enhance your learning.

For example, as you read, you should be having an internal dialog using your inner voice (phonological loop) to perform quality assurance of the words that you are seeing and reading (visuospatial sketchpad). As you read, you should be consciously asking yourself questions such as: “Am I paying attention or has my mind drifted?”; “Does this make sense?”; “What do I already know that supports or refutes this?”; “Since this is unclear, what should I do to better understand this concept?”; and so forth.

Then you should use the results of this self-interrogation to regulate your next steps to master the material. While research has not confirmed this with absolute certainty, the central executive and the components of working memory are at the core of the apparatus for metacognitive monitoring and self-regulation.

How to Read Metacognitively

To trigger the internal dialog needed for metacognition, it may help to have some examples of the kinds of questions you can employ to stimulate an internal dialogue as you read.

You can use this following set of questions as both a cheat sheet and a petri dish for growing your own catalog of metacognitive questions.

• Is this something that I want or need to memorize?

• Does this remind me of anything in another unrelated domain of knowledge?

• Can I think of anything else I know that contradicts this concept?

• What other things that I already know support the veracity of this concept?

• Can I think of any practical examples of this?

• Is this the first time that I’ve come across this nugget of knowledge?

• Where else have I come across this idea?

• Who else has tried to teach me this before?

• How certain am I that this is true and correct?

• Does this relate to anything else that I already know?

• Where else in life can I find an example of this?

• What other related concepts come to mind?

• How difficult was it for me to grasp this?

• If this is a WHAT, then can I explain the WHY?

• How can this information be applied in my life?

• Why is this important to know?

• What else do I know about this topic?

• What else would I like to learn about this subject?

• Do I fully understand this?

• Can I break this down into smaller parts?

• How would I explain this to a child?

• How does this fit in with the rest of what I know about this subject?

• Is this information reliable?

• Is this totally believable?

• What, if anything, surprises me about this?

• Is this easy to grasp?

• Do I find this interesting and why?

• How can I apply this it the real world?

• Why is this important to know?

• Am I curious to learn more about this?

• What else might I want to learn more about because of this?

• What does this mean to me?

• Do I need to consult another source to better understand this?

• What questions does this raise for me?

• Does this have any broader implications?

• Why is this important?

• What other ways could I express this concept?

• Does this bring any examples to mind?

• Would I like to be able to remember this forever?

• Should I consult another source?

• How would I succinctly summarize this?

I’m sure that you apply metacognition to one degree or another, but some people read 100% passively and get nothing in return for the time spent. Try to consciously and deliberately ask yourself more questions as you read. Talk to yourself!

Metacognitive reading slows you down as you take the time to engage with the material. But slow-reading is a more profound reading experience and it is the methodology used by most elite learners.

I urge you to embrace slow-reading. Strive to read a lot of great books, slowly and deeply.

Speed-reading is good for skimming but detracts from comprehension.

Slow-reading is the path to deep learning. But we’re not talking about slow passive reading. The reason why elite learners succeed with slow-reading is that they actively engage with the material through metacognition. They use their working memory to have an internal conversation to quality control their experience with the text. They focus their attention not only on the page but also on the episodic buffer where they manipulate the concepts and quality-assure the experience. They determine where the material fits in with their existing knowledge and mental models. They self-regulate and follow up to fill in the gaps in their learning that were uncovered as they read.

Slow-reading is for deep learners. If you are going to invest time reading for knowledge, take the time and do the work to get your money’s worth.

If you want to massively expand your knowledge, become a voracious slow reader.