An eight experiment sequence to determine reading equality

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2-1998

Abstract

An eight experiment sequence was conducted to compare the speed and retention resulting from reading material. The text was justified in each of four different ways: ragged-right (unjustified); fill justified; equal-fill justified; and micro-fill justified. Retention was measured by recall and by recognition tests. For reading time, only one significant difference was found among the eight experiments. For retention, no statistically significant differences were found. Although our results are in direct contrast to those of other researchers, the consistency of our results make suspect any claim for reading time (or retention) superiority of ragged-right text. These eight experiments demonstrate that all forms of justification read equally well (discounting that micro-fill justification did have an edge in one of the five experiments in which it competed). © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Identifier

0348113485 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Information and Management

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-7206(98)00059-7

ISSN

03787206

First Page

231

Last Page

242

Issue

4

Volume

34

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