Kurita's Speed Reading System was first proposed in 1987. The system began to be taught as a regular course in 1991, and by 2002 as many of 405 courses had been taught. Detailed data on more than 13,000 students that passed through the course is now available. The purpose of the training is to shift the conventional paradigm of character information to a new method which consists of 'distributed input, parallel processing, and integrated output'. To achieve this purpose, the training uses the mind and body correlation in an original way, activates the route from the peripheral visual field to the subconsciousness, establishes a new transfer method for information processing, and improves intellectual activity. The present study examines the degree of improvement of intellectual function through a series of five-day classes in the intermediate level of this course. The subjects comprised 160 adult participants enrolled in four intermediate classes held in 2001 and 2002. The average reading speeds tested just before the start of training in the beginning class, just before the start of training in the intermediate class, and just after the completion of training in the intermediate class were 916, 6,886, and 56,881 characters/min, respectively. Compared to the reading speed in the first of the three reading tests, the reading speed increased an average of 63.7 times in the third test. Compared to the reading speed, in the second of the three reading tests, the reading speed increased an average of 11.3 times in the third test. The calculation speed (number of single digit additions performed within one minute, treated as an index of work efficiency) rose from an average of 98 points to an average of 114 points, indicating average improvement in efficiency of 17%. The maze unraveling speed (number of unit mazes solved within 20 seconds, treated as an index of cognitive ability) rose from an average of 21 points to an average of 36 points, indicating an average increase by a factor of 1.7. The number of Kurita finger rotations accomplished, an index of the agility and skill of the motor system, increased remarkably. The degree of bodily vigor was also increased. These results suggest that the abilities of adult subjects increase more dramatically in the intermediate class of Kurita's speed reading course than in the beginning class.
