Overclocking My Brain: Adapting to Faster Audio and Reading Speeds

As I progress towards blitzing 100 Polish books in 100 days, I've observed a fascinating phenomenon: my brain seems to be "overclocking" itself to adapt to increasingly fast audio and reading speeds. In this technical-oriented post, I try to capture my experiences and insights on how this cognitive adaptation has been unfolding.

The OVERCLOCKING ANALOGY

In the world of computers, "overclocking" refers to pushing a CPU beyond its default specifications to achieve higher performance. I've found a striking parallel between this concept and what I've been experiencing during my Bimodal Blitz sessions. As I gradually increase the speed of the audiobook, my brain is able to process the information at a faster rate, much like an overclocked CPU.

COGNITIVE ADAPTATION

When I start a blitz —reading a book in the target language and listening to the audiobook version, at the same time, in a single day or sitting— I begin the audiobook at normal speed. If the narrator's voice seems slow or my mind starts wandering, I speed up the audiobook a bit, maybe by 20 percent. At this point, adjusting my reading speed to the audio is easy. It feels comfortable. However, after increasing the audiobook speed a few more times, up to 80-100 percent faster than normal, the narrator's voice sounds like hyper-speed babble, and my reading has a hard time keeping up.

With consistent exposure, my cognitive functions have been able to adapt to this increased demand. I notice that as my reading locks back into synchronicity with the audio, the audio seems to slow down. This is likely when my brain enters a "flow state," where my cognitive processes align snugly with the task at hand, allowing me to comprehend the spoken language more effectively at higher speeds.

In other words, it's when my reading speed synchronizes with the accelerated narration that flow happens. This synchronization leading to flow state contributes to the enhanced clarity and comprehension I experience as I blitz through the book.

ENHANCED PERCEPTUAL PROCESSING

Another intriguing aspect of this cognitive "overclocking" is the improvement in perceptual processing. As my brain becomes attuned to the increased pace, it seems to become more adept at parsing speech signals, leading to better discrimination of phonetic and linguistic elements. The initially garbled voice becomes clearer, and I can discern more enunciation and distinct words.

Alternately, I've also experienced reduced linguistic processing. When I'm listening at a faster pace, my brain processes less linguistic information. I'm no longer focusing on individual words or phonemes but rather on the overall meaning and structure of the sentence. This reduced linguistic processing can make the narrator's voice seem slower and more natural, as the brain is no longer working as hard to parse individual words.

OPTIMIZING LANGUAGE LEARNING

Borrowing again from the overclocking analogy, I believe that this cognitive adaptation and synchronization optimizes my language learning process by processing information more efficiently. Just as overclocking maximizes a CPU's efficiency, my brain is adapting to efficiently process and comprehend the accelerated audiobook, resulting in improved language acquisition.

FLUENCY, the FINAL FRONTIER

As I continue my Bimodal Blitzathon, with 63 Polish books blitzed in 63 days, I'm excited to see what I learn next about Polish language and culture, and the other ways I can push my brain's "overclocking" capabilities.

So onwards and upwards, as I continue to blitz my way into Polish language fluency. One day at a time, one book at a time. You can read my book reviews here.

P.S. A book on how to Bimodal Blitz (tentatively titled “Blitz This Book”) will eventually be released explaining the method in detail. Subscribe to this blog for updates. I’m also on Twitter/x.