The relationship of typographic arrangement to the learning of technical training material.

Abstract

"... two newly developed methods of typographic arrangement, square span and spaced unit, may possess certain advantages over the usual arrangement. While square span slowed the reader on first encounter, this effect tended to diminish with practice; spaced unit had little effect upon reading speed. The reader found the newer arrangements less acceptable than the more traditional, but this feeling was less marked when the "thought units" in the arrangement were small rather than large. The chief effect upon immediate retention produced by the newer arrangements compared to the older was to provide an increase in test scores for the more able readers. It should be emphasized that the advantages of the newer arrangement are best described as potential, since they interfere with strongly developed reading habits. ".