Individual differences in skimming speed are large even among college-trained readers, with one observer skimming nearly three times the pace of another¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1914 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Under instructions to skim, marked individual differences in rate remained among the six observers. → Whipple 1914

Evidence¶

Whipple 1914¶

Whipple, G. M., & Curtis, J. N. (1914). Preliminary Investigation of Skimming in Reading. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=preliminary+investigation+of+skimming+in+reading

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Main experiments, in which six observers skimmed twelve selections from Mangold's Child Problems with per-word timing (Table 7). The article cites the extremes: "Gst skims at nearly three times the pace of Gou"; Gou showed no noticeable speed increase when directed to skim.

"Under instructions to skim there remain marked individual differences in the rate; thus, to cite extremes, Gst skims at nearly three times the pace of Gou"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Forcing readers to skim at unusually high prescribed rates makes reproduction very poor and the process disagreeable — related
• Skimming rate correlates strongly with normal silent reading rate (r = +0.71) — related
• Skimming speed increases across the later pages of multi-page texts — related