Skimming (scanning) news items printed in 8-point and 9-point letters.

Fifty housewives searched for particular words in paragraphs of text printed in 8-point and 9-point Times New Roman without leading in lines of 2·2 inches. To prove that they had found a word they had to write down the following word. The 9-point. print was scanned 7 per cent faster than the 8-point (p<0·05). The method appears to be more sensitive to small changes in the visibility of print than methods involving comprehension.