What I have trouble believing is that anyone could, using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (which was the subject of the comment I replied to) process characters (or words) that flash on the screen as fast as (or faster than) 25fps.
Problem with serial presentation is of course, you cannot skip words or process words in parallel. I suspect when you attain 1,300wpm, you are focusing your eyes on half a page or perhaps the entire page, and only skimming sentences and absorbing key words and ideas, rather than processing each word one at a time.
Ah, my apologies for misunderstanding your comment. That's what I get for attempting rational thought at one in the morning.
Before I learned to speed read the way I currently do, I tried learning using RSVP. In my personal experience I didn't find it very helpful, and my comprehension rates (when using RSVP) plummeted. I'm in complete agreement there.
As to my 1,300wpm, you're partially correct. 1,200wpm is just about the limit at which I can read word by word, line by line in a book, using my hand as a pacer. After 1,200, I stop dropping conjunctions, pronouns, and prepositions, and anything that can be inferred through context or isn't necessary to the meaning of the sentence (e.g. - absorbing key words and ideas, but still more precise than 1/2 a page at a time).
Problem with serial presentation is of course, you cannot skip words or process words in parallel. I suspect when you attain 1,300wpm, you are focusing your eyes on half a page or perhaps the entire page, and only skimming sentences and absorbing key words and ideas, rather than processing each word one at a time.