The Relative Influence of Material and Purpose on Reading Rates

NEARLY ALL STUDIES of relationship beI tween speed and comprehension of silent reading have recognized in some manner and to some extent influence of material being read and purpose of reading. In 1925 Gray (4), inasummary of related experimental literature up to that time, stated that the correlation of speed and compre hension varies with difficulty of material, purpose of reading, and measure of compre hension. Flanagan (3) in 1939 summarized and interpreted results obtained from training twelfth-grade pu pils to read difficult materials at different rates. He concluded that degree of comprehension was influenced materially by purpose of reader, demand made upon reader, difficulty of material, and rate of reading. In 1945 Tinker (7), studying various aspects of rates from testing high school freshmen, found that factors which appear to affect size of this cor relation between speed and comprehension include nature of reading task, techniques of meas urement, diff iculty of material, and pur pose for which reading is done. In 1949 Carlson (1) attempted to find out whether relationship between speed and comprehension was a constant one or varied as material and purpose varied. Data obtained in study led him to conclude that the effectiveness of fast and slow readers as measured by accuracy of comprehension was dependent on: j 1. Levels of intelligence, j 2. Purposes for reading, j 3. Level of difficulty of material, 4. Opportunity for referral in answering quesI tions, j 5. Continuity of context. , In none of related literature, however, has writer found any attempt to discover w h i c h of i two factors, material or purpose, exercises j greater degree of influence on rate of reading. In a recent experiment (5), conducted by writer, evidence was found to support conclusion that difficulty of material being read exerts a great er degree of influence on rate of reading than does purpose. experiment involved construction and ad ministration of a test, designed primarily to meas ure flexibility of reading rates. test consisted of two parts : one to test f 1 e x i b i lity of rate in accordance with difficulty of material, hold ing constant purpose; other to test flex ibility of rate in accordance with purpose, hold ing constant difficulty. Part I of test consisted of two selections: one of material easy to read; other of material dif ficult to read. purpose for both of these re mained same: to read s e le c tion as rapidly as possible and still understand its uf fie iently to answer questions afterwards. Part H of test consisted of two selections of equal difficulty level to be read for different pur poses: one to be read as rapidly as possible for story; other to be read for complete mastery of ideas and details. materials comprising these fours elections were chosen to satisfy five basic criteria. Each had to be: 1. Of an interesting nature, 2. Neutral, not favoring any subject matter area; 3. Of a continuous context, 4. Of sufficient length to assure re liable rates of reading (over 2, 500 words), 5. Of appropriate difficulty level by Flesch Readability Formula. basic hypothesis on which study rests is that a good reader adjusts his rate in accordance with difficulty of material and with pur pose of reading, slowing down as material be comes more difficult or as his purpose calls for greater mastery of material. McKee (6) says, Every pupil should learn to adjust his speed of reading in a given situation to purpose for which he is reading and to dif ficulty of reading matter. Carrillo and Sheldon (2) state that The mature ! reader is adaptable, versatile reader; he should | be able to adapt his rate of reading to purpose