[ExI] reading vs hearing

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Harvey Newstrom
> Subject: [ExI] Speeding up audio
> 
> On Friday, May 15, 2009 4:35 PM, spike wrote:
> > I can read a lot faster than he can talk.
> 
> I can listen faster than he can talk.  That is why I listen 
> to podcasts and audio at increased speed... Harvey Newstrom 

This brings up an important question I have been pondering.  During the last
couple years, I intentionally avoided the noise copy of everything in the
news.  Now I take all my news by reading only.  In some cases I read hard
copy (newspapers and magazines), the great majority of the time internet
soft copy, but no TV, no radio, no podcast, no noise copy of any kind.  I
did this with the pre-election debates: read the transcripts the next day.
My reasoning is that I am a fast reader, and have excellent reading
comprehension and retention.  Sound channel, not so much.  My attention
wanders when using that slow medium.  With reading, I control the speed.
With noise, the speaker does.

Experiment: take a big diverse group, divide it equally, give all the same
info, but one subgroup gets only soft or hard copy, the other gets only
noise copy.  Do they come away with the same message?  If different, how?
Why?  

Now, let the original group divide itself as it wishes, to get either text
or sound, not both.  Now do the two groups get the same message?  Your
answers may explain a lot.

spike