Yes and no; I seem to have two distinct kinds of reading, one where I sub-vocalise and one where I don't.
I was hyperlexic as a kid, learning to read precociously early and forever with my head in a book. I still have a very strong compulsion to read anything with words on it wherever I go; even toiletry containers while I'm on the loo. But this kind of compulsive reading doesn't seem to be much about gaining understanding - it's more like my brain likes playing with words for their own sake, and it doesn't matter whether I already know what the words will say or have read them dozens of times before (as I used to with books in my childhood). I don't sub-vocalise when I'm doing this and read extremely quickly; certain words or phrases will stand out, but only as "toys" for my mind, but I commonly miss the meaning of whole sentences and paragraphs. I can go for pages and pages before I realise that none of the meaning has sunk in.
To be sure that I extract the meaning from the text, I have to slow myself down and sub-vocalise, moving my tongue and larynx as if saying the words. I can find it quite hard sometimes to maintain this "mindful" kind of reading without allowing myself to slip into the compulsive kind. Moving my tongue/larynx when sub-vocalising is also something I quite often do when working through social "scripts" or arranging my words before opening my mouth.
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01 Jul 2018, 2:43 am
