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The cases reported in this paper are all those of children of normal mentality who have failed to learn to read after three or more years in the public schools. In all cases but one the vision was normal. The method described here was used only after the child had been given several weeks of individual instruction by recognized methods and had failed to make any improvement.Many children who have been brought to us as non-readers with individual instruction and proper motivation, learned to read quite easily by ordinary methods when they were given individual instruction and proper motivation; others proved to be mentally deficient. In five years we have found only seven cases of actual non-readers, even though children have been brought to us from all parts of the state. In all seven cases the presumption of mental deficiency had been made as the explanation of the reading failure. In all but one case, however, the intelligence quotient was found to be at least 100 by the Stanford Revision. METHOD 1. Learning first words.-The child was asked to tell some word he would like to learn. The word was written in large script on the blackboard or with crayola on cardboard. The child looked at the word, saying it over to himself and tracing it if he wished to do so. The tracing was done with the first two fingers of the right hand (or of the left hand if the child was left-handed) resting on the copy. It was never done in the air or with pencil. When the child was sure he knew the word, the copy was erased and he attempted to write the word, saying the syllables to himself as he wrote them. If he was unable to write the word correctly, the entire process was repeated until the word could be written without the copy. At no stage of the performance was he allowed to copy the word. After a few words had been learned in this way, 1 This paper is to be followed shortly by two others, giving the results of experiments with first grade children and of experiments in spelling. The bibliography will be published with the final paper. 355 Downloaded by [New York University] at 04:01 27 June 2016 356 JOURNAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Vol. 4, No.5 he was shown the word in print as well as in script. The next day he was shown the word in print only. If he failed to recognize it, it was written for him. If he still failed to recognize it, it was retaught as on the first presentation.2. Spontaneous sentences.-After the first few days the child began to ask for sentences instead of words. A sentence was then written and he learned the words comprising it, finally writing the entire sentence as many times as he wished-always from memory, never from copy.The sentences the child had requested were then printed on cardboard or were typewritten. These sentences and others, made of the same words, were read by the child. The same words were repeated in different sentences from day to day.3. Words in context or story selected by the child.-As soon as the child was able to make out simple sentences, he was taken to the library and allowed to sel...

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The present investigation is a direct continuation of one carried out in 1903-4 in the Mt. Holyoke laboratory. 1 The results of this earlier paper were based on observations of the appearance of the colors at the red-yellow end of the spectrum when seen in peripheral vision, and were in brief as follows :I. The brightness of a colorless background has a decided effect: (1) On the limits for yellow and orange, the limits for the former color being much wider with the darker grounds, for the latter color wider with the lighter grounds. (2) On the tone of red, orange and yellow, the component of the color least like the background in brightness being emphasized in every case -namely, the red with the light background, and the yellow with the dark background. Orange, which showed a greater variation than any other color, appeared as red with the light backgrounds at the same degree of eccentricity at which it appeared yellow with the dark backgrounds. The brightness of the background seems to have no effect on blue.II. After-images are often experienced at the periphery even when the tone of the stimulus color is not seen.A monograph by Dr. Baird, 2 which appeared after our paper had gone to the printer, gives the results of an investigation of peripheral vision under conditions of dark adaptation. His 'PSYCHOI,. REV., Vol. XII., 1905, pp. 386-425 : 'The Effect of the Brightness of a Colorless Background on the Extent of the Color Fields and on Color Tone in Peripheral Vision.' 1 J. W. Baird, ' The Color Sensitivity of the Peripheral Retina,' Carnegie Monograph, May, 1905. 2 5 26 GRACE MAXWELL FERNALD.conclusions, based on results obtained under invariable conditions of background and adaptation, have a bearing on our problem, since they represent the extreme case of dark adaptation and of brightness, contrast between stimulus and background. They are in brief as follows t 1 (i) " With a slight luminosity of stimulus, all colors appear colorless at the periphery of the retina." (2) "When they are brought in far enough to appear colored, those of the red end of the spectrum first appear yellowish or yellow, while those of the blue end first appear bluish or blue. . . ." (3) After-images, ' in the ordinary sense of the term,' were reported in but few cases, and then only when the paracentral regions of the retina were stimulated. Latent after-effects, however, seemed to persist after the stimulation, and to be influential in determining the color-effect of succeeding stimuli, when too short an interval was allowed between tests.In December, 1905 , J an investigation reported by Miss Gordon and Miss Thompson at the Harvard meeting of the American Psychological Association, gives detailed results, showing the effect of a colorless background on the color tone and on the frequency of occurrence of the after-image. The results, as summarized in the PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN, are as follows : 3 "Finer discriminations are made in the red-yellow end of the spectrum than in the blue-green end, both in stimulus and after-image,...

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