Eye Movements in Reading: Facts and Fallacies

The daughter of a friend of mine, a junior in high school, came home the other day with the news that she and her classmates should be reading no slower than 750 words per minute in their literature books. Her English teacher said this was no trick at all-it merely required leaving out all the unimportant words and taking in large groups of words or phrases at each eye stop. The better students, according to the English teacher, would have no difficulty reading 1,500 words per minute. Jane and her classmates swallowed this hook, line, and sinker because the teacher had said it. The next day they started phrase-reading exercises. As the teacher tapped rhythmically on the desk, the students tried to make three eye stops on each line of print. This teacher would not have confused her students and wasted their time in this meaningless activity if she had had a better understanding of how the eyes and the mind work together in reading, how much (or how little) it is possible to control eye movements, and how eye-movement patterns and reading efficiency are related. However, she is not alone in being misinformed about the mechanics of reading. Many professional texts, reading-improvement workbooks, and popular articles on reading contain misconceptions about the actual performance of reading. A survey of 20 of the more widely distributed reading-improvement books and workbooks showed that 18 included statments about the visual-functional and perceptual acts that are in direct contradiction with research findings. The purpose of this article is to explore facts and fallacies related to eye movements and reading and to answer certain basic questions about the activity of reading.