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In continuing her work on the "Psychology of Reading" (number 130 of the same series), the author investigated the effects of various psychologic factors on the effector mechanism of reading. The effects were judged by studying the ocular movements, and were recorded by an apparatus that photographed a beam of light reflected from the cornea on a moving film.
It was established that the eye did not remain steady during voluntary fixation. Voluntary movements were not performed accurately, as the eye usually stopped short of the correct point, but occasionally overshot it. Kinesthetic sensations did not give an accurate impression of eye movement.
Disconnected words were read at a slow and variable rate. Meaningful material, however, was read at a rate that varied with the attitude of the subject to that material. Reading was rapid and regular when the subject was uninterested in the meaning of the passage, and rapid