Is watching videos at 2x speed bad? The effect of double speed on learning revealed by experiments

Have you ever watched a video at double speed? This practice is common among many individuals. Even some students do that when watching lecture videos. However, it remains unclear whether this method is efficient for learning and whether it results in significant memory retention loss during the lectures.

In an effort to answer these questions, a group of researchers conducted an experiment in Turkey to compare the effects of watching lecture videos at double speed versus normal speed.

The pretty flamingos is excited to present the results of this experiment.

The experiment was designed to understand the effect of double speed on memory retention. The students were assigned to two groups randomly. One group watched a lecture video at normal speed, while the other group watched the same video at double speed.

The video was on neoplasia terminology. The participants were first and second year medical students. They watched the video, then they answered a written test comprising 20 multiple-choice questions immediately after watching the video. Lastly, they were tested with the same questions after one week.

Here are the results.

In the immediate test, there was no significant difference in test scores between the normal speed group and the double speed group. Moreover, the two group showed a similar performance in the delayed test.

Therefore, we can conclude that there is no significant impairment in retention when watching videos at 2x speed.

This finding is consistent with a previous study conducted outside the medical education context, which found that comprehension was only impaired in participants watching at 2.5x speed. It seems that as long as you don’t exceed 2x speed, you could save your time and learn more efficiently without leading significant impairment in retention.

However, a recent study that deals with this question in an adult learning context found that younger adults can watch lecture videos at faster speeds without significant deficits in memory, but older adults’ test performance is generally impaired when watching at faster speeds.

If you want to read more, you can find the links to these articles at the description below the video: https://youtu.be/GS4now61JVc

See you and adios para amigos.

And also, don’t forget the flamingo.

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