ON MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FACTORS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION. 331 
Reading occurs probably only during the pauses. Fast readers achieve 
regular rhythmical movements of the eyes more easily than slow ones. 
These movements are assisted by lines of uniform appearance, position, 
and length. 
8. The area covered by a given fixation varies with the nature of 
the subject-matter—it is large in the case of nouns, adjectives, and 
yerbs, but small with the connective parts of speech. The amount read 
at each exposure is greater than that which occupies the region of 
clear perception, but less than that which fills the maximum range 
of vision. 
4. It is not yet clear whether the ‘total word form’ or certain 
‘dominating ’ letters and complexes function first in word-perception. 
Among recent investigators Wiegand argues that the ‘total form ’ is 
of less importance than single letters, whereas Beer emphasises the 
importance of the ‘ total form’ for prose, as distinct from poetry. It 
is possible that the same individual proceeds by different methods, 
according as his purpose is best served at the time. 
5. Inner speech is generally characteristic of reading, and is usually 
a combination of motor and auditory elements. Lip-movement is com- 
monly found in children and backward adults, but it is a hindrance, 
and disappears in proportion as rapidity and understanding are acquired. 
There are two stages in the function of inner speech: a preliminary 
word-sound is called up immediately by the visual form, but the full 
inner utterance is held back until there are enough visual and motor 
data present to suggest the total meaning of the whole idea. 
6. Meaning seems usually to be felt as belonging to the sentences 
and the large units. Words are felt as having a part in the total, but 
they are only links to a place where a new meaning will emerge. The 
consciousness of meaning belongs to the feelings. Sensory imagery 
occurs usually with the substantives, but the meaning is not in the 
image: it is in the feeling which attaches to the image and the word 
together.* 
References. 
Professor Huey’s ‘Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading’ (Macmillan 
Company) gives a bibliography which is complete to 1907. More 
recent publications are :— . 
C. F. Wiegand : ‘ Untersuchung tber die Bedentung der Gestaltqualitat 
fiir die Erkennung von wortern.’—Zeits. f. Psychol., Bd. 48, 1908. 
Dodge: ‘Eine Experimentelle Studie der visuellen Fixation.’—Zeits. f. 
Psychol., Bd. 52, 1909. 
Beer: ‘Die Abhangigkeit der Lesezeit von psychol. und sprachlichen 
Faktoren.’—Zeits. f. Psychol., Bd. 56, 1910. 
F. C. Dockeray : ‘The Span of Vision in Reading, and the Legibility of 
Letters.’—J. of Hd. Psychol., i., 1910. 
A. Prandtl: Zeits. f. Psychol., Bd. 60, 1911. 
(b) The Mental Processes involved in Learning to Read. 
By B. Dumvitiz, M.A. 
In reading, both perception (visual in normal cases) and appercep- 
tion play a part. If the former alone took place, there would be little 
2 Various members of the Committee object to this view of the nature of 
meaning. 
