Myth #6: Regression or "Skip-Back" is a Bad Habit that Prevents Speed Reading
Regression or "skip-back" as it is known in some circles, is an extension of the "gaze" problem. In the absence of fatigue, this "gaze" problem can occur when an unfamiliar word is encountered and the eye stops and remains fixated on the word without moving on. The solution is to stop reading and look the word up in a reliable dictionary. This might slow the reader initially, but the problem occurs less often as vocabulary improves.
Regression is similar to the "gaze" problem but occurs over more extensive portions of text; usually clauses and sentences of unfamiliar structure or where a number of words have unfamiliar usage, but can occur with larger words that are either unfamiliar or used in an unexpected manner. Instead of just stopping, the eye skips back over read text to reread it, usually because eye motion exceeded the speed of recognition. This often occurs when the reader is attempting to skim the text instead of reading properly. Skimming is the bad habit and not skip-back. Regression is only a symptom of poor comprehension that is either caused by false reading practises such as skimming or photo-reading or by uncertainty of the intended meaning of a word used in the text.
In cases where the reader is not skimming or photo-reading, regression can be used to increase reading speed by taking the time to look up the word that caused the regression. Armed with a better vocabulary as a result of good dictionary discipline, the regression for a given word generally only happens once and as a result, reading speed improves.
