Photographic records of eye movements show that the eyes move smoothly across the line of print but in a series of sops (fixatSuch regressive eye movements seem to occur when the reader's thought is interrupted by the presence of unfamiliar words and by failure to recognize the correct meaning of a word in its context or to relate it to other ideas in the passage: also, when his perception is inadequate and when his eyes move more slowly or more quickly than his thoughts.
In general, good readers show greater flexibility in eye movements than do poor readers they adjust their reading methods to serve their ends. Extensive investigations of eye- movements in reading reveal that the efficient reader tends to employ
ions) and starts. Sometimes they move backward over the line.