Psych Clinic Aids In Reading Speed

When a child delights in pulling girls' hair and pinching his neighbors, he may just be exhibiting some undeveloped "he man" tendencies and nothing more. But then again, such actions may need careful psychological treatment, which is the case with many youngsters who are brought to the attention of the Psycho-Educational Clinic at Harvard.

Walter F. Dearborn, professor of Education and director of the clinic, specializes mainly in problems of reading. Practical work in that field is being demonstrated at College in the Freshman Remedial Reading courses that are being given to more than 60 members of the Class of '47.

Professors Practice, Too

But the Freshmen are not alone in receiving reading aids. Recently, as a result of an article published in the February 27 issue of the "Harvard Alumni Bulletin" which described his classes, Dearborn received requests from two professors at the Law School to join his group, admitting that they had to do a great deal of reading and were interested in improving their speed and comprehension.

Attacking the problem scientifically, the clinic uses the following method of increased reading ability: a paragraph of material is shown on the screen. Then it is repeated in short flashes of word groupings, until the paragraph has been seen, not in its entirety, but as a collection of word-groupings.

Reading Hits Home

The clinic maintains that normal people read in word-groupings and not by looking at individual letters. To prove this, they have a machine that flicks short phrases into sight for the subject to read. For example, a sentence like "Take the box" can easily be comprehended without being read letter for letter. But a smaller number of letters, "Xzu Psyfg," flashed before the subject in the same split-second would not register on his mind since it arouses no associational image.