Improvement of Reading Speed and Eye Movements

Although many studies have examined eye movements in reading, little is known which factors differentiate slow and fast readers. Recently, Rayner et al. (2010) reported that fast readers had a larger effective visual field than did slow readers by using the gaze-contingent window method. The fast readers they selected, however, may have acquired better attentional skills inherently or through long experience, and this visual superiority would improve reading performance. To clarify this issue, we investigated eye movements in reading while practicing speed reading. Participants (approx. 600 letters per minute in Japanese) exercised speed reading programs for half an hour per day for about 30 days. Reading performance of Japanese editorial articles was recorded every five days of training by the gaze-contingent window method. Our results showed that the size of the effective visual field did not increase in the same manner as reading speed (up to 1000 lpm). Instead, we found that saccadic length became longer and less varied. Fixation duration and the number of regressions were also reduced. These findings suggest that efficiency of comprehension at a single gaze may be the important factor for reading speed.