Psychology of Reading: 2nd Edition

I used an earlier version of this book (ie, Rayner and Pollatsek: The Psychology of Reading, 1989) whilst studying psychology at university some years ago and, though I found it a fairly difficult text it was highly comprehensive and covered the course/unit I was studying very well at the time. However, I found the text more difficult than Andrew Ellis’ introductory Reading, Writing and Dyslexia, but whilst Ellis’ book was less demanding than Rayner and Pollatsek’s text, it failed to cover all aspects of my course. Used in conjunction, both books seemed to be the winning solution for me―Ellis’ text being particularly valuable in the initial stages of learning the subject, and Rayner and Pollatsek’s text being more useful for delving into the topic that little bit further.I hope you find my review helpful.

I am presently using this book in a graduate course in reading. I have a strong background as a reading specialist and have taken many prior graduate courses in reading over the years. The authors present excellent research in the field on the science of reading and refer to many detailed studies. However, I must say that the book is extremely difficult to read and understand. I believe to a large extent that the authors presumed that readers of this book would already have a strong knowledge of the physiological and psychological aspects of reading. If you do not have a really good understanding of the science of reading, I would not recommend this book for others. At this point, I am struggling to make sense of many of the ideas and concepts in the book and do not feel I am getting everything that I should from it. I wish there were some supplements or lecture outlines to accompany the book that would aid in comprehension.

This book is written by the authors who are highly respected in the field, and are still currently actively involved in the field of reading. I agree that it may be difficult to understand the book the first time you read if you don't have prior knowledge on experimental psychology or cognitive psychology. This book may not be the best for the general audience who are unfamiliar with the field.We use this book as a textbook in a small undergraduate seminar class at our school. Most of them have good prior introductory knowledge in psycholinguistics and find this book extremely helpful for understanding the class.For the researchers in the field, this is definitely the best resource available to use as a quick reference. Extremely clearly written, and very thorough.

The text is so tiny that it hurts my eyes to read it. Although it gives a very detailed analysis on the psychology of reading, it talks about eye movement for a larger portion of the book that could be spent on other things.

The book is written in a very convoluted way which makes it quite hard to read and understand. I find it quite ironic as this book is about just that -- Reading.Also, the microscopic font size makes things even more difficult -- what were they trying to do? Save paper?If I was the author, I would rewrite this book, make it shorter/more concise, and make the font size bigger.If I were you, I would save a couple of dollars and buy the Kindle edition. It's much easier to find your way through that (since you can search it and the font size can be made bigger).

difficult to follow

I am using this as a graduate level textbook and really wish there resources to go along with the book.