The gap between laboratory research and its application often seemed enormous and was particularly true in the area of reading. Originally published in 1977, Toward a Psychology of Reading was an attempt to span some of the differences between research and practice at the time. Although the book would not supply the practitioner with quick and easy answers to many real everyday problems, it was hoped that researchers, teachers and students concerned with the relationship between reading and the cognitive abilities underlying this skill would find productive and useful the cross fertilization between theory and application.
The thrust of this volume is that the reading process is not only more complex than previously assumed, but that like so many other cognitive and linguistic skills, the richness and depth of the complexity increases the more closely it is examined. Today it can be read in its historical context.