Dodge (61), who has analyzed the functioning of the
various elements in the reading complex with marked
acuteness, thus describes the work of extra-foveal
vision :

"Sometimes the peripheral vision of words, when they
are indistinctly seen in the hazy part of a line, is sufficient
for reading. It is always useful, furnishing an important
premonition of coming words and phrases, as well as a con-
sciousness of the relation of the immediately fixated symbols
to the larger groups of phrase and sentence. Without this
premonition of coming words and the outUnes of larger
groups, the process of reading would be slow and difficult.
"In normal reading there is abundant evidence that the
word forms, indistmctly seen in peripheral vision, begin the
reading process well in advance of direct fixation and the
consequent clearing up of the letters.
"It is this premonition of coming words and phrases,
sentence breaks, and paragraphs, that determines the posi-
tion of future fixations, and reduces the diu'ation of individual
fixations sometimes to pauses one-quarter the normal percep-
tion time. They are often less than the simple reaction time
of the eye."

Not only is peripheral vision effective in decreasing
the number and duration of the fixation-pauses per luxe
and consequently accelerating the rate, but it is also
instrumental in fostering and stimulating meaning
premonitions, thereby improving comprehension as
well. Hand in hand with the reaching out of percep-



TRAINING IN PERCEPTION 129

tion beyond the immediate field of clear vision seems
to go the reaching ahead of the assimilative factor
beyond the meaning grasped in direct fixation to those
dimly felt in the extra-foveal area. Meaning premoni-
tions, made more niunerous and more vigorous by the
functioningof awideperipheral vision, play an important
r61e in the rapid interpretation of the printed page.
