What is RSVP speed reading? How one-word-at-a-time reading works

RSVP stands for rapid serial visual presentation: instead of moving your eyes along a line of text, the words come to you, one at a time, in the same spot on the screen. It’s the idea behind Presto, and you can see it running in the demo above. It’s one of several methods covered in our speed reading guide.

How RSVP works

When you read a page normally, your eyes don’t glide smoothly. They jump from point to point in quick movements called saccades, pausing briefly on each word or group of words. You also skip back now and then to re-read something, a regression. Each jump and pause takes time, and each line break is a chance to lose your place.

RSVP removes most of that work. Every word appears at a fixed point, so there’s nothing to jump between. Presto also highlights one letter in each word, the optimal recognition point, slightly left of centre, and lines every word up on it so your eye lands where it recognises the word fastest.

A good RSVP reader doesn’t show every word for exactly the same time. Presto lingers a little on punctuation, paragraph breaks, long words and numbers, which gives your brain a moment to catch up and makes the rhythm feel closer to natural reading.

Where RSVP came from

RSVP started as a research method. Psychologists in the 1970s used it to study how people understand language, because showing one word at a time let them control exactly what a reader saw and when. Mary Potter, at MIT, did much of the early work showing that people can understand sentences presented this way at surprisingly high rates.

It became a consumer idea in the 2010s, when apps like Spritz brought it to phones and smartwatches, where small screens made it a practical way to read.

What RSVP is good for

• Reading at a steady pace. You can’t drift, stall or re-read a line out of distraction, which many people find helps them focus.
• Reading faster on easy material. Most people can comfortably read RSVP somewhat above their usual page speed for articles, fiction and familiar topics.
• Small screens. One large word fits on any screen, with no scrolling or zooming.
• Getting through a reading pile. Long articles and books you want to finish but keep putting off.

Where it falls short

• Comprehension drops if you push too hard. Research on RSVP and speed reading consistently finds that understanding falls off at high speeds. A big part of the reason is that you can’t glance back at a sentence you didn’t quite catch.
• Dense material needs a slower pace. Technical writing, poetry and anything you need to study closely is still better on the page, or at a gentler RSVP speed.
• Tables, images and layout don’t translate. RSVP is for running text.

Aim for the speed where you read faster than you normally would and still follow everything, rather than the biggest number you can manage.

Getting started

1. Start near your normal speed. For most people that’s 250 to 300 words per minute. Presto starts at 300.
2. Let the pauses work for you. The extra time at sentence and paragraph ends is where your understanding catches up.
3. Go up in small steps. Add 25 wpm once a speed feels easy (how to read faster has a four-week plan). If you notice you’ve lost the thread, step back down.
4. Use the context view. Pause at any time to see the surrounding paragraph, and tap a word to jump back to it.
5. Match speed to material. A light novel and a textbook deserve different settings.

Try it

You can try RSVP with your own EPUBs, PDFs and other ebooks in Presto. It’s free, runs in your browser, and your books stay on your device.