PSYCHOLOGY OF READING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 314, 23 November 1910, Page 2

PSYCHOLOGY OF READING.

Examinations made by Erdmann and Dodge may serve as a foundation for the psychology of reading, and through careful experimental observation these scientists have reached results of extraordinary interest. Hitherto two views have prevailed, the one being that reading was effected solely by spelling each letter, therefore, being grasped and perceivec for and by itself ; the other being that the words were grasped not exclusively letter by letter but in small groups of letters in the same spaces of time.

We learn from their report in th€ Zeitschrift fuer Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane that Erdmann and Dodge first ascertained through reflection of the left eye, .vhile the head was kept in a steady position, that in reading an easily comprehensible text there is a regular change between pauses of rest for the eye and its movements. The number of these pauses, however, is much smaller than the number of letters over which the eye glides, and it remains, in the case of the same person, almost unchanged as long as a fluent text is used. If the text becomes more difficult in the meantime the number of pauses is increased a little, and where attention is given exclusively to the formation of words as in "proofs," the number becomes three times as large. . So much having been ascertained, the next object was to ascertain if reading was effected during the pauses of rest or whether the letters presented themselves with sufficient distinctness while the eye was moving to the right. Through perfectly exact observation and calculation both investigators came to the conclusion that reading was effected exclusively during the pauses of rest. On an average the eye glides, during a definite movement on the line, over a space of 1.52 to 2.08 centimeters, a space that contains about twelve to thirteen letters. The rapid change of the black and light textual elements —the letters and the interstices — makes it more impossible for;the eye to recognise the letters while it is in motion. It was also ascertained that by a very brief oxercise of vision, while the eye is still, that four letters without exception, five at the most, can be recognised at the same time, even when they do not occur in a sequence, however, four or five times as many letters can be read during the same interval' of vision. In the short pauses of rest while reading one recognises the words solely from their optical collective form, if the letters are not too large, and such recognition is by so much easier as the words show themselves more characteristic and fluent to the reader. Even a beginner can, therefore, with a little practice enable himself to read not only without spelling but with a visual grasp of whole words at a time. How far this capability may reach depends on the optical memory of the reader.