Knowledge that Transforms

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether numbers in the form of printed words or as Arabic numerals, when used in the context of arithmetical problems, bring greater reading efficiency as measured by speed of reading.The attempt was made to maintain comprehension approximately constant.In scientific material the practice of printing numbers varies with authors.Often a single writer is not consistent.Words are sometimes employed and at other times Arabic numerals are used.There is a tendency perhaps to print unit numbers as words more often, and to print numbers of two or more digits as numerals.Numbers which occur as the first item of a sentence are almost invariably in the form of words.In arithmetical or algebraic problems as well as in those of exact sciences numbers usually appear as numerals.Formulae and equations always employ numerals.Numerals are symbolizations which represent a large amount of abbreviation in comparison with words.This abbreviation exhibits itself in part by requiring much less space on the printed page, for such printing is more compact.Landolt (6) found that in reading a series of figures, very short and rapid eye movements were involved.There appeared to be about one move for each digit read.Employing a photographic technique Dearborn (1) discovered in reading numbers that the attention was concerned with much smaller units than in reading words of ordinary prose selections.