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The amount read from the second of two successive fixations was examined in adults before and after a 'speed-reading' course and in fast and slow 11-year-old readers, as a function of contextual constraint. Faster readers benefited more from increased contextual constraint. Errors related only visually to the display decreased with increased constraint; errors both grammatically and visually related increased more in faster than slower readers, and more so than predicted by the relative increase found in purely grammatically related errors. It was concluded that more effective use of context enlarges the effective visual in field two ways. With greater contextual priming, less sampling of visual information is necessary for word recognition, allowing more capacity for visual processing on the periphery. I n addition, faster children, but not adults, showed an advantage even in sequences without contextual constraint. In the fastest readers of both ages a type of semantically related error was found which suggests a further mechanism of rapid reading.The speed of reading differs quite considerably among literate children and adults.

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