Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, December 1898: Volume LIV, No. 2, December 1898Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, December 1898: Volume LIV, No. 2, December 1898
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
A study of problems in the Psychology of Reading, by J. O. Quantz,
bore upon the questions of the factors which make a rapid reader, the
relations of rapidity to mental capacity and alertness, quickness
of visual perception, and amount of practice; and whether those who
gain their knowledge principally through the eye or through the ear
obtain and retain most from reading. The author finds that colors
are more easily perceived than geometrical forms, isolated words
than colors, and words in construction than disconnected words; that
persons of visual type are slightly more rapid readers than those of
the auditory type; that rapid readers, besides doing their work in
less time, do superior work, retaining more of the substance of what
is read and heard than do slow readers. Lip movement is a serious
hindrance to speed, and consequently to intelligence, of reading.
The disadvantage extends to reading aloud. Apart from external
conditions, such as time of day, physical fatigue, etc., some of
the influences contributing to rapidity of reading are largely
physiological, as visual perception; others are of mental endowment,
as alertness of mind; still others are matters of intellectual
equipment rather than intellectual ability, as extent of reading and
scholarly attainment.
Mr. Merton L. Miller, of the University of Chicago, says, in his
preliminary study of the Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico, that he was
hampered in his researches there by a circumstance that illustrates
very well certain characteristics of the Indian. About fifteen
years ago representatives of the Government were at Sia making
investigations, and had to ask many questions. Some time after they
went away there was much sickness in the pueblo, and many people
died. It occurred to the Sia people that the presence of those white
men, asking so many questions, was the cause of all their trouble; so
they sent men to the other pueblos to warn them against white men who
came to find out about their customs and beliefs. These messengers
also came to Taos, and the people remembered their warning well. If
a Taos Indian is caught now teaching the language or telling any of
the traditions to a white man, he is liable to a whipping and a fine.
This, Mr. Miller believes, accounts for the fact that he could rarely
learn anything from his friend when they were at the pueblo, although
when away in the mountains he became much more open and communicative.
NOTES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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