REMEMBER - TAKE NOTES TO USE ON 

THE CONCEPT QUICK QUIZ !!

Module 3.2 - Visual vs. Non-visual Information

Learning Objectives: When you finish Mod 3.2 you should be able to answer the following questions:

I've begun practicing self-pacing to get my eyes moving more quickly; is that enough?

How do visual and non-visual information work together most efficiently to result in rapid reading?

What are the drawbacks of over-reliance on visual information?

I've begun practicing self-pacing to get my eyes moving more quickly; is that enough?

Reading is an advanced and relatively recent development in the history of language. The total reading process is very complex and involves much more than just moving your eyes across a line of print. The reader's entire schemata (organized system of memory, background experience, and prior knowledge) as well as language ability and psychological and emotional state come into play and interact with sensory input through the eyes to form that complex cognitive process we call reading.

The physical part of reading - vision and eye movement - is essential, but is only a small part of the total process of reading. Don't be too quick to blame poor comprehension on faulty eye movements or bad reading habits. Quite often poor comprehension and lack of active, purposeful reading are the cause faulty eye movements and slow, plodding reading.

One essential skill of reading that is rarely taught is to depend upon the eyes as little as possible!!

How do visual and non-visual information work together most efficiently to result in rapid reading?

Of course, the eyes do have a part to play in reading. It is necessary for input/information from the eyes to reach the brain, but visual information alone is not enough. Some less than fluent readers hold themselves back from fluent rapid reading because they are reluctant to let go of "microprocessing" that visual information.

There are other kinds of information - non-visual information - that the reader brings to the experience and needs in order to be able to read and comprehend:

• an understanding of the relevant language including vocabulary and syntax
• familiarity with the subject matter 
• general ability in reading

The essential point is that these two kinds of information exist in a reciprocal relationship in the reading process:

• The more non-visual information you have when you read, the less visual information you need.

• The less non-visual information you have, the more visual information you need.

This is one of the keys to rapid reading. The more highly developed schema you possess prior to reading, the more quickly you will be able to move through the print without sacrificing comprehension. Again, this is why it is so important to read widely and read a lot!!

You may already have run into this situation on Speed Reader in the reading lab. Say you have a selection to read on Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. If you, as I, have read and heard this speech many times in the past, you and I will be able to read this selection at speeds in excess of 1500 to 1600 WPM with comprehension measured at higher than 90%.  Because of our wealth of non-visual information on the subject, we need to rely very little on the visual information presented. Essentially, we are moving through the selection only checking to be sure there is no new or incongruous information that we need to slow down and process.

What are the drawbacks of over-reliance on visual information?

The most obvious, of course, is that processing each and every word individually - each individual bit of visual information - slows you down and inhibits rapid and effortless comprehension. In addition, there are limits to the amount of visual information the brain can handle. The brain can very easily be overwhelmed by visual information. The key, therefore, is to make maximum use of what you already know and to depend on the information from the eyes as little as possible.

Here's a demonstration of the limitations of visual information and the value of non-visual information. I would like to arrange things so that you will get only a single glance at a line of randomly selected letters. Researchers usually limit participants to a glance of about one-hundredth of a second. Unfortunately, I haven't found anyone to write the html code (JavaScript?) to put this experiment online. (If you can make this happen, see me please.) 

I will simply ask you to click on the word "random" below, take one quick glance at the letters that will appear on your screen (try to focus your attention on the center of the screen), and then look away from the letters as you close that screen and return to this one. 

How many letter can you see at a single glance?

random

How much did you see? Probably not very much. Most people see only four or five letters clustered around the point where you happen to be focusing. Under controlled conditions, experimental psychology has found four or five letters to be the upper limit on how much can be seen in one-hundredth of a second. It makes no difference if you are a child who has mastered the alphabet or an adult with years of reading experience. Practice doesn't help either. 

It isn't the rate at which visual information gets to the eye that limits how much you can see in a single glance. Information gets to the eye and becomes available to the brain almost instantaneously. After that instant the brain begins its processing work and the eyes in effect shut down (more about this in Module 3.3 when we explore fixations). Any additional information they might pick up will only serve to overload the brain. The brain is too busy trying to make sense of the information that the eye collected in that first thousandth of a second or so. Your brain essentially becomes overwhelmed when you are given 26 or so random letters that don't make any language sense.

There is a limit to how much can be seen at any one time, and that limit in terms of random letters is four or five. There is a limit to the rate at which the brain can identify random letters in reading, and that rate is four or five letters per second.

Let's try the experiment again. Once again, take just one glance at the letters in the rectangle which will appear when you click on "familiar".

familiar

What did you see this time? Probably about twice as much as you were able to see before. When the letters are organized into words, reader can generally identify a couple of words, raising your total letters up to about ten or twelve. The same amount of visual information (25 letters) was processed, but you were using the non-visual information already in schema (the familiar words) and making sense of the letters. This allowed you to make the same amount of visual information go twice as far. 

The essential point so far is that the amount of visual information required to identify a single letter is cut by about half if the letter occurs in a word. You don't read each letter individually, your brain processes them as whole words.

One more demonstration, this time to illustrate how your brain can maximize processing by relying on non-visual information. One final glance at 25 letters that will appear when you click on "meaningful".

meaningful

Did you see all the letters this time? Most people do. By relying on non-visual information you have increased the amount you can see and process  - read - from four or five letters to four or five words. The amount of visual information available to the brain in each demonstration was the same, and each time the brain had the same amount of time to process the information. If at least four times as much can be seen when the letters are formed into a sentence - a sequence of words that make sense - it must be that using available non-visual information can make visual information go four times as far.

Previous modules have discussed increasing the available store of non-visual information through developing schema, building background knowledge, and enhancing vocabulary. How can you learn to maximize visual input? This is our topic for the next module where you will learn more about eye movements, fixations, and recognition span.

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Proceed to Module 3.3

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