How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate
By Marc Brysbaert. Journal of Memory and Language, 2019
466 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Based on the analysis of 190 studies (18,573 participants), we estimate that the average silent reading rate for adults in English is 238 words per minute (wpm) for non-fiction and 260 wpm for fiction. The difference can be predicted by taking into account the length of the words, with longer words in non-fiction than in fiction. The estimates are lower than the numbers often cited in scientific and popular writings. The reasons for the overestimates are reviewed. The average oral reading rate (based on 77 studies and 5,965 participants) is 183 wpm. Reading rates are lower for children, old adults, and readers with English as second language. The reading rates are in line with maximum listening speed and do not require the assumption of reading-specific language processing. Within each group/task there are reliable individual differences, which are not yet fully understood. For silent reading of English non-fiction most adults fall in the range of 175 to 300 wpm; for fiction the range is 200 to 320 wpm. Reading rates in other languages can be predicted reasonably well by taking into account the number of words these languages require to convey the same message as in English.
Subfields: Artificial Intelligence
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/35bf5854514ee63095a6a3dc4a7bdaa2eb18929f
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In Artificial Intelligence
Citations in the corpus
- Sample Size Justification (2021, unknown): “…consist of book-length treatments (Aberson, 2019; Cohen, 1988; Julious, 2004; Murphy, Myors, & Wolach, 2014), general introductions (Baguley, 2004; Brysbaert, 2019; Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, & Buchner, 2007; Maxwell, Kelley, & Rausch, 2008; Perugini, Gal-lucci, &Costantini, 2018),…”
- Evaluating Large Language Models in Generating Synthetic HCI Research Data: a Case Study (2023, background): “Considering the reaction time distribution (see Figure 1), and meta-analysis of reading rates of adults [11], reaction times of over 664 words per minute were deemed implausible.”