Reading Is Complex Behavior
It is not surprising that reading deficiencies are so common because the reading act is complex. This complexity creates many opportunities for error to occur. Examining the behavior of the eyes during reading makes one wonder how reading is possible at all. If we stand directly behind a reader and carefully observe one of his eyeballs by reflection in a small mirror held just below it, we see that the eye moves from left to right, not with a steady sweep but with jerks and pauses. Then it swings back from the extreme right to the extreme left to start the next line. Experimental studies have shown that during the movement of the eyes, perception of letters and words is impossible. How, then, can one ever learn to read? We now know that the eye as a receiver of information from the printed page works during the stops or fixation pauses.
During fixation pauses the reader attends to the stimulus mater ial not in a piecemeal fashion but as a pattern or whole. He does this because he nas learned that it is not necessary to perceive every letter and every word in o!der to obtain the essential information. All languages contain letters and sounds that are redundant, and the languages themselves are redundant, i.e., they contain more words than are necessary for conveying information. When you perceive the letter q, you know it will be followed by u. When you see informati, you know it will be followed by on. When you see ps ch l y, you fill in the missing letters easily. When you see
The land the free home brave
you fill in the missing words without difficulty. In reading, certain cue letters or words are all that is necessary for ordinary comprehension.
