Machine definition of ongoing silent and oral reading rate

A procedure is described by which a machine defines the ongoing silent and oral reading rates, and thus subjects them to environmental control and experimental analysis. Reading is considered as a form of monitoring in which response sequences are linear and successive. Applications for other types of monitoring are considered.

A page is projected on a screen, and the subject is required to read, aloud or silently. Through the same optical system, an opaque loop is presented that masks the projection, and a transparent slit on the opaque loop exposes part of a line of type. With each frame, the slit moves linearly and sequentially, exposing successive reading material. Recycling the loop triggers the presentation of another page. The subject controls the loop by pressing a micro-switch to advance the frame, thereby explicitly defining a monitoring response. The procedure is sensitive to variables such as signal-noise ratio, item difficulty, transient and long-term effects, reinforcement schedules (pay-offs), and age. Monitoring rates are extremely steady, suggesting their use as a base line.

Procedures are suggested for training subjects to be differentially attentive to different parts of a complex display.