Randall Walker, MD

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Improving Comprehensionof the Written Word

• Randall Walker, MD

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Aristotle, On Interpretation

• Spoken words are the symbols of mental
  experience, and written words are the symbols of
  spoken words.

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Sumerian logographs from 4000 BC
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SPKNWRDSRTHSMBLSFMNTLXPRNCNDWRTTNWRDSRTHSMBLSFSPKN
WRDS.
2000 BCPhoenician alphabet contained consonants
only.
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SPOKENWORDSARETHESMYBOLSOFMENTALEXPERIENCEANDWRITT
ENWORDSARTHESMYBOLSOFSPOKENWORDS.
1000 BCthe Greeks added vowels.
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SPOKENWORDSARETHESMYBOLSOFMENTALEXPERIENCE,ANDWRIT
TENWORDSARTHESMYBOLSOFSPOKENWORDS.
200 BCAristophanes plays with punctuation
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Spokenwordsarethesmybolsofmentalexperience,andwrit
tenwordsarethesmybolsofspokenwords.
700 ADlower case
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Spoken words are the symbols of mental
experience, and written words are the symbols of
spoken words.
900 ADspaces between words.
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1000 AD
1500 AD
2000 AD
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Spoken words are the symbols of mental
experience, and written words are the symbols of
spoken words.
900 ADspaces between words.
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Spoken words are the symbols of
mental experience, and written words
are the symbols of spoken words.
2000 AD LiveInk
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The Reading Eye-Span
Conventional Text presentation only permits
character perception of 9 characters in a
horizontal row at each fixation.
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Final Exam Scoresmean /- 2 S.D.
Live Ink Group
Proportion of Students with Score
Control Group
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91 Preference over Block Format
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One small step for publishers, one
giant leap for human
comprehension.