Links

We are gradually compiling a working bibliography of important research and sources of information on speed reading. Entries will be added and edited over time. If you would like to recommend a source to add to our list, please contact us with your suggestion.

Scholarly Research

AM Abell, "Rapid Reading: Advantages and Methods" (1894) 8 Educational Review 283

RB Adams, "The Pehnomenon of Supernormal Reading Ability" (1963) 12 Yearbook of the National Reading Conference 133

P Ahuja, "Rapid Reading Programs, Increased Reading Speed and Comprehension" (1977) 7(1-2) Psycho-lingua 7

Bruce Amble, "Reading by Phrases" (1967) 18 California Journal of Educational Research 116 (phrase reading can increase recognition span, comprehension, and rate)

Bruce Amble and Gordon Butler, "Phrase Reading Training and the Reading Achievement of Slow Learners" (1967) 1 Journal of Special Education 119 (discusses a phrase training program in which the phrase training group made greater gains in reading speed than other group)

AD Baddeley et al "The Role of Subvocalisation in Reading" (1981) 33A(4) Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Experimental Psychology 439

Allen Berger, "Selected Review of Studies on Effectiveness of Various Methods of Increasing Reading Efficiency" (1966) 6 Journal of the Reading Specialist 74 (includes 125 references)

Allen Berger, "Effectiveness of Four Methods of Increasing Reading Rate, Comprehension, and Flexibility" in J Allen Figurel (ed), Forging Ahead in Reading, 12(1) International Reading Association 1968 Proceedings 588 (reviews four methods; all four methods produced significant gains in reading speed)

Allen Berger, Speed Reading: An Annotated Bibliography (1967) (an annotated bibliography of writings published in the more readily accessible sources; more than twenty-five professional journals are represented; the 1970 revised edition is available at the National Library of Australia; 44 pages)

Allen Berger, "Increasing Reading Rate with Paperbacks" (1967) 4 Reading Improvement 47 (specific suggestions on how to increase reading speed with paperbacks)

Allen Berger, "Reading Rate: Claims and Controversies" (1967) 8 Proceedings of the College Reading Association 61 (basic questions on how to measure reading rate)

Allen Berger, "Ten Important Sources of Information on Speed Reading" (1968) 11(5) Journal of Reading 359. In this article, Burger has selected ten sources which, in addition to presenting information, include important bibliographic references. If you review these ten sources, and then read the references in the accompanying bibliographies, and, where appropriate, read the complete volume in which the cited work is found, then you will have covered nearly all the important contributions to the field of speed reading up to 1968.

Allen Berger, "Speed Reading: Is the Present Emphasis Desirable?" (1969) in Ni1a Banton Smith (ed), 13(2) Current Issues in Reading 45 (comprehensive article containing 98 references)

Allen Berger, "A Comparative Study of Reading Programs in Industry" (1969), paper presented at the North Central Reading Association conference, Michigan, 31 October 1969-1 November 1969 (results of a survey of hundreds of commercial reading firms; includes questions on the definition of speed reading and definition of reading rate)

Allen Berger, "Are Machines Needed to Increase Reading Rate?" (1969) 9 Educational Technology 59 (what can be done with machines can be done as well, if not better, without; with caveats)

Allen Berger, "Questions Asked About Speed Reading" (1970) 44 The Clearing House 272 (distillation of research findings relating to various aspects of speed reading)

George W Bond "Speed Reading in the High School" (1955) 39(2) High School Journal 102 (value of speed reading courses and factors affecting reading speed)

Burl Brim, "Impact of a Reading Improvement Program" (1968) Journal of Educational Research 177 (discusses tachistoscopic training exercises that led to a statistically significant gain in reading speed without a significant loss of comprehension)

James I Brown, "Techniques for Increasing Reading Rate" in John E Merrit, New Horizons in Reading (1976) 158 (importance of vocabulary to reading speed; techniques teachers can use to increase students' reading speed; freely available on Internet) (see also James I Brown, "Techniques for Increasing Reading Rate", paper presented at the International Reading Association World Congress on Reading, Vienna, 12-14 August 1974)

William G Brozo and Jerry L Johns, "A Content and Critical Analysis of 40 Speed Reading Books" (1986) 30(3) Journal of Reading 242 (suggests criteria for evaluating speed reading books; 53 references)

Lawrence Carrillo, "Developing Flexible Reading Rates" (1965) 8 Journal of Reading 322 (gives 10 suggestions on developing flexible reading rate)

Ronald P Carver, "How Good Are Some of the World's Best Readers?" (1985) 20(4) Reading Research Quarterly 389 (investigates, among other questions, "how fast do speed readers read and how well do they comprehend when they read?")

Ronald P Carver, Reading Rate: A Review of Research and Theory (1990) (critically reviews 100 years of reading rate research, including research on eye movements, silent speech, comprehension, word recognition, and speed reading; includes references to around 500 books and articles and more than 250 research studies)

Cathy Collins, "Speedway: The Action Way to Speed Read to Increase Reading Rate for Adults" (1979) 16 Reading Improvement 225 (investigation of the effectiveness of "Speedway: The Action Way to Read" in increasing the reading rate and efficiency of adult readers)

Frederick B Davis, "Measurement of Improvement in Reading Skill Courses" in Emery P Bliesmer and Ralph C Staiger (eds), Problems, Programs, and Projects in College-Adult Reading (Eleventh Yearbook of the National Reading Conference) 1962 (11 pages, includes 8 references; discusses the problems involved in measuring rate of reading; see also the papers by Rankin, Holmes, Stroud, Spache, Kingston, Carter, Taylor, Letson, and others in same volume; back issues of the Yearbook of the National Reading Conference can be ordered from NRC online)

James Fleming, "Skimming: Neglected in Research and Teaching" (1968) 12 Journal of Reading 211 (questions some assumptions)

ML Glock, "The Effect Upon Eye Movements and Reading Rate at the College Level of Three Methods of Training" (1949) 40 Journal of Educational Psychology 93 (each method improved reading rate)

William S Gray, Summary of Investigations Related to Reading (1925) (summarized the then current literature on speed reading; speed may be increased by various methods without loss in comprehension)

Albert J Harris, "Research on Some Aspects of Comprehension: Rate, Flexibility, and Study Skills" (1968) 12(3) Journal of Reading 205-210, 258-260 (reviews research relating to rate and flexibility, rate and comprehension, rate and study skills, and research reading)

Mary Herculane, "A Survey of the Flexibility of Reading Rates and Techniques According to Purpose" (1961) 4 Journal of Developmental Reading 207 (tests 3 kinds of reading: skimming, rapid reading, and thorough reading; cites need for development of flexibility in reading at upper elementary level)

Jack A Holmes and Harry Singer, Speed and Power of Reading in High School (183 pages, includes 62 references; available from the National Library of Australia) (for another view, see David M Wark, "Substrata-Factor Theory — A Dissenting View" in George B Schick and Merrill M May, New Frontiers in College-Adult Reading (Fifteenth Yearbook of the National Reading Conference) 1966 (includes 16 references; back issues of the Yearbook of the National Reading Conference can be ordered from NRC online)

Donald Homa, "An Assessment of Two Extraordinary Speed Readers" (1983) 21 Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 123 (concludes that the only special ability of the speed readers was their dexterity in turning pages)

Edmund B Huey, "Preliminary Experiments in the Physiology and Psychology of Reading" (1898) 9(4) American Journal of Psychology 575 (discusses the results of 3 experiments on horizontal versus vertical reading; word recognition from first and last parts of words; and eye movements)

Ralph James, "An Investigation into the Reading Efficiency of Students at a Technical Teacher Training College (1967) 37 British Journal of Educational Psychology 391 (2 of 3 test groups gained in reading rate)

Robert Karlin, "Machines and Reading: A Review of Research (1958) 32 Clearing House 349 (reviews research of previous 2 decades; suggests spending more money on materials than on machines)

Rondeau Laffitte, "Analysis of Increased Rate of Reading of College Students" (1964) 7 Journal of Developmental Reading 165 (reports on 3 groups of students trained by various reading methods; each group significantly increased reading rate)

R Lester and Viola D Wheeler, "Improving Rate of Comprehension" (1955) 39(1) High School Journal 53 (exercises for breaking the habit of inner speech)

William Liddle, "An Initial Investigation of the Wood Reading Dynamics Method", unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Delaware, 1965 (236 pages, includes 78 references; has a microform version). For abstract, see 27 Dissertation Abstracts September 1966, p 605-A and Edward G Summers, "Doctoral Dissertations in College and Adult Reading Instruction" (1969) 13(1) Journal of Reading 9, 13. Liddle's dissertation provides a comprehensive review of articles and studies on rate and flexibility; found that rate rose significantly in the Reading Dynamics Method and comprehension dropped after training. See also Arthur S McDonald, "Research for the Classroom: Rate and Reading Flexibility" (1965) 8(3) Journal of Reading 187 (includes 41 references) and McDonald's "Flexibility in Reading" in Reading as an Intellectual Activity (vol VIII, International Reading Association Conference Proceedings; traces history and cites present confusion in regard to the concept of flexibility); for additional information on reading flexibility, see Samuel Weintraub's review of research in 21(2) The Reading Teacher 169

Vearl McBride, "Adding Speed as you Read" (1964) 42 Florida Education 14 (unorthodox views on increasing reading speed; claims you can read more than 100,000 words a minute)

Vearl McBride, "Worthwhile Reading: A Time for Action!" (1967) 15 North Carolina Education 15 (criticizes prevailing views on increasing reading speed; presents unorthodox views and methods)

Walter J Moore, "A Laboratory Study of the Relation of Selected Elements to the Skimming Process in Silent Reading", unpublished doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University, 1955 (includes 50 references; contains photographs of eye movements during skimming; objective was to identify the characteristics of the skimming process and the personal factors related to efficient skimming; for abstract, see Dissertation Abstracts, 15, November 1955, p 2103; for more on skimming, see James T Fleming, "Skimming: Neglected in Research and Teaching" (1968) 12(3) Journal of Reading 211

John Morton, "The Effects of Context Upon Speed of Reading, Eye Movements, and Eye-Voice Span" (1964) 16 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 340 (fast readers use contextual cues)

John O'Brien, Silent Reading, With Special Reference to Methods for Developing Speed (1922) (clearly written, practical guide on training students to read more rapidly)

Walter Pauk, "Speed Reading?" (1964) 4 Journal of the Reading Specialist 18 (students with an initial speed of 250 words a minute can be reading at 500 words a minute in a few weeks with no loss of comprehension)

Rudolph Pinter, "Inner Speech During Silent Reading" (1915) 20 Psychological Review 123 (inner speech is just a habit that can, to some extent, be broken through practice)

EC Poulton, "British Courses for Adults on Effective Reading" (1961) 31 British Journal of Educational Psychology 128 (surveyed reading courses in English; average reading rate increased between 40 and 130 percent; more often a gain than a loss in comprehension)

Earl Rankin, "Sequential Emphasis Upon Speed and Comprehension in a College Reading Improvement Program" (1963) 7 Journal of Developmental Reading 46 (if poor comprehension is a result of slow speed, then speed might be taught before comprehension, but with care and not with younger groups)

Sidney J Rauch and Alfred B Weinstein, "A Slow Look at Speed Reading" (1968) 11(5) Journal of Reading 353 (factors affecting reading speed, including the reader's background and difficulty of the reading material)

FB Robinson, "An Aid for Improving Rate" (1934) 27 Journal of Educational Research 453 (recommends reading in spaced phrases of slowly increasing length; reading rate increased 28 percent and comprehension increased by 5 percent)

Florence Schale, "Vertical Methods of Increasing Rates of Comprehension" (1965) 8 Journal of Reading 296 (suggests the possibility of reading squares of print)

David L Schmidt, "Does Rapid Reading Training Really Work?" (1972) 26(2) Training and Development Journal 26 (concludes that competent instruction, proven and valid instructional methods, and enthusiastic presentation and participation can bring about measurable improvement in reading effectiveness)

E Donald Sisson, "Eye-Movement Training as a Means of Improving Reading Ability" (1938) 32(1) Journal of Educational Research 35 (compares the impact of eye movement training and intent to read faster on reading rate)

Lloyd S Standlee and Eugene A Hooprich, Annotated Bibliography of Reading Instruction for Adults (1961) (includes 400 references); see also Standlee and Hooprich's Review of Research on Reading Instruction for Adults, US Naval Personnel Research Activity (Technical Bulletin 62-12), August 1962 (includes 119 references); from the same source is available Hooprich and Anderson's "An Experimental Evaluation of Methods for Improving the Reading Skills of Students at a NESEP Preparatory School" (Research Report SRR 66-16, March 1966) and Hooprich's "The Relationship of Reading Ability to Achievement in an Experimental Electronics Technician School" (Research Memorandum SRM 66-37, June 1966).

Russell G Stauffer (ed), Speed Reading: Practices and Procedures (Proceedings of the 44th Annual Education Conference held at the University of Delaware, 2-3 March 1962) (contains papers and discussions by Stauffer, Tinker, des Islets, Spache, Liddle, Wood, Proxmire, Taylor, Thomas, and Dew)

Russell G Stauffer, "Speed Reading and Versatility" in J Allen Figurel (ed), Challenge and Experiment in Reading (1962), 7 Proceedings of the International Reading Association 206 (cites the value of flexibility; possible for some people to read almost as fast as they think; but first they must break the oral-visual barrier)

George Stevens and Reginald Orem, "Characteristic Reading Techniques of Rapid Readers" (1963) 17 Reading Teacher 102 (fast readers can move directly from written word to meaning; importance of conceptual background in the material)

JB Stroud, "Rate of Visual Perception as a Factor in Rate of Reading" (1945) 36 Journal of Educational Psychology 487 (found relationship between rate of reading and rate of visual perception)

Jean Sutherland, "The Relationship between Perceptual Span and Rate of Reading" (1946) 37 Journal of Educational Psychology 373 (training aimed at improving perceptual span will also improve rate of reading)

Stanford E Taylor, "Reading Instrument Usage" (1962) 15 Reading Teacher 449 (emphasizes that equipment is to be used as an aid and as only a part of the total reading program)

Stanford E Taylor, Eye Movements and Reading: Facts and Fallacies, Huntington, New York: Educational Developmental Laboratories, November 1963 (includes 21 references) ("The purpose of this newsletter", according to Taylor, "is to present information gathered through eye-movement photography in order to clarify the fallacies and present the facts regarding eye movements and reading")

Llewellyn Thomas, "Movements of the Eye" (1968) 219 Scientific American 88 (interesting article on span recognition, fixation, and regressions)

Miles A Tinker, "Eye Movements in Reading" (1936) 30(4) Journal of Educational Research 241 (a complete bibliography on, and review of, major trends in investigations of eye movements that have a direct bearing on reading; includes 188 references)

Miles A Tinker, Bases for Effective Reading (1965) (322 pages; includes 356 references)

Magdalen Vernon, Visual Perception and Its Relation to Reading, An Annotated Bibliography, International Reading Association (1966; revised 1969) (contains 40 annotated references)

Howard Walton, "Vision and Rapid Reading" (1957) 34 American Journal of Optometry 73 (historical background of eye movement studies)

Shirley Wedeen, "Mechanical Versus Non-Mechanical Reading Techniques for College Freshmen" (1954) 79 School and Society 121 (both methods produced gains, but the machine group improved more in rate than the nonmachine group)

Lester Wheeler and Viola Wheeler, "A New Era in Reading" (1962) 16 Reading Teacher 109 (stresses the need to break the "sound barrier" in reading rate improvement)

Paul Witty, "Rate of Reading — A Crucial Issue" (1969) 13 Journal of Reading 102 (reviews research from 1921 to present)

Popular Works on Speed Reading

Useful books aimed at a more general audience include:

"The Bookworm Gets an Outboard Motor", 2761 The Times Educational Supplement, 19 April 1968, 1311 (discusses the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics method in some detail)

Jonathan Anderson, Efficient Reading: A Practical Guide (1969) (each chapter is devoted to a different aspect of the reading process; "tried and proven" techniques are suggested, together with exercises designed to improve particular reading skills)

Kenneth Baldridge, Reading Speed and Strategy for the Business and Professional Man (1966) (six chapters, one chapter for each of the six main reading skills; includes practice material and exercises)

Bonnie Bauman, Super Reader: How to Teach Your Child to Speed Read (1979) (techniques for teaching speed reading to elementary school children; includes games and exercises for gaining speed, improving peripheral vision, and reducing subvocalization)

Harry Bayley, Quicker Reading (1957) (exercises for increasing eye span, reducing inner speech, understanding flexibility, etc)

Craig Bender, "CS Professor's Methods Develop Top Reading Speeds" Herald-Whig, 14 January 1968, 10a-11a (recommends various methods to improve reading speed)

Bob Casey, Smart Reading: The Australian Way (2003) (a collection of practical "smart reading" tips)

Shari Caudron, "Speed Reading, Anyone?" (1998) 247(1) Industry Week 64 (easy-to-read, brief article on the importance of speed reading, why people read slowly, and techniques to avoid slow reading)

Manya De Leeuw, Read Better, Read Faster: A New Approach to Efficient Reading (1965) (self-training manual for improving efficiency in reading "informative material")

TF Hartnell, Phoenix System of Fast Efficient Reading (1972) (brief, highly practical guide — with exercises — on how to increase your reading speed)

Paul D Leedy, Read with Speed and Precision (1963) (includes techniques and tests)

Ruth Moss, "Teach Yourself Speed Reading" Chicago Tribune, 19 May 1968, Section 10A, 8-14 (Annual Spring School Guide) (staff writer describes 3-week course on how to teach yourself speed reading)

Walter B Pitkin, The Art of Rapid Reading (1930) (easy-to-read guide on speed reading)

David Swain, Efficient Reading: How to Read Better and Faster (1966) (a book of 1000-word practice articles, with introductory text and exercises that test various speed reading skills)

Lillian P Wenick, Speed Reading Naturally (1983) (presents a speed reading program that the author says has helped many people to read more rapidly; includes sections on fixations, eye span, flexibility, and subvocalization)