Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from On the Conditions of Fatigue in Reading
In a few additional experiments the observers read at their natural rates. The resulting ratios $1 for4 observers were 87, 86 and 81, the average 89, being the same practically as that obtained by the other method.
Thus it takes on the average about 196 as much time to read large type, mm., as to read small type, 9 mm. The dif ference in legibility would probably be much greater were it not that when the small type is read more words can be seen simultaneously. In this way we may explain Weber's paradoxical result. As the size of the letters increases be yond a certain limit the rate of reading will necessarily de crease; but this does not involve an increase of fatigue, as Weber assumed.
By a second method we found the relative number of words seen when exposed for 515 sec. By Cattell's gravity chronometer.1 Phrases of three and four words were pasted on white strips of cardboard and were shown for the time desired by a falling screen. The greater part of the screen was hidden from the view of the observer by a black sheet of paper with an opening where the letters were to appear. The phrases were cut from the books mentioned, the letters being and 9 mm. High. None of the words were of more that two syllables. The same phrases were used for large and small type. There were 54 phrases of 3 words and 54 of 4 words, half in large type and half in small. Thus there were 216 162 words in all.
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