If you watch a lot of educational videos you might have been tempted to watch at higher speeds. However, you might be suspecting this will cause a loss of comprehension.

Now you should be happy to know that as per a recent research paper, we can watch video lectures at 1.5x-2x the speed with minimal comprehension loss.

From the paper abstract:

“We presented participants with lecture videos at different speeds and tested immediate and delayed (1 week) comprehension. Results revealed minimal costs incurred by increasing video speed from 1x to 1.5x, or 2x speed, but performance declined beyond 2x speed…Thus, increasing the speed of videos (up to 2x) may be an efficient strategy, especially if students use the time saved for additional studying or rewatching the videos. but learners should do this additional studying shortly before an exam”.

Talking is slower than reading. In a typical video, we get information at the rate of about 150 words per minute(wpm). However, most people can comfortably read and understand at 250-350 wpm, so it's not surprising that 1.5x-2x works so well.

However, this is only a single study on college students and there are many factors that can affect the results. So I would suggest experimenting with increasing speeds (1.25x,1.5x etc) and using whatever works for YOU.

You can find the full research paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/acp.3899