Fluent Reading as a Cognitive Process

Reviews the book, The Process of Reading: A Cognitive Analysis of Fluent Beading and Learning to Read by D. C. Mitchell (1982). Today reading has become a major focus of the cognitive sciences generally, and much of the research in cognitive psychology can be seen to relate directly or indirectly to our understanding of its complexities. Mitchell's conceptualization of reading and his plan for examining it are straightforward. His focus is on fluent silent reading for comprehension. This he defines as "the ability to make sense of written or printed symbols. The reader uses the symbols to guide the recovery of information from his or her memory and subsequently uses this information to construct a plausible interpretation of the writer's message." This book is a substantial contribution to one important approach to the understanding of a complex and important area of psychology. It presents a concise and lucid introductory summary of where that approach now stands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)