Re:Underground History of American Education
by tokenadult on Thursday April 02, 2009 @11:00PM
(#544425)
I've read a fair amount of the eye-tracking literature, and it's true that people read letters or (small) groups of letters if they are reading.
Re:Underground History of American Education
by delackner on Friday April 03, 2009 @01:52AM
(#544569)
I haven't read any of the literature, but can't both claims be true? Experienced readers may mentally first become aware of whole words or blocks of words, but they could easily just not be aware of the finer-grained eye movements that are going into that perception.
Well, it looks like you're right. Which makes reading more complicated than I had thought. Please mod me down for being incorrect.
Thank you for the interesting information tokenadult.
I'm not sure why he claims people don't read whole words. We read groups of letters not the letters themselves.
Relatedly, I met a man who claimed to be a speed reader. When pressed he insisted it was true and that he read lines and paragraphs at a time with good retention and understanding. He went on saying he and a group of kids had been taught to speed read by their elementary school principal for his PHD thesis.