A REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH ON THE COMPREHENSION OF RAPID SPEECH BY THE BLIND IDENTIFIES FIVE METHODS OF SPEECH COMPRESSION--SPEECH CHANGING, ELECTROMECHANICAL SAMPLING, COMPUTER SAMPLING, SPEECH SYNTHESIS, AND FREQUENCY DIVIDING WITH THE HARMONIC COMPRESSOR. THE SPEECH CHANGING AND ELECTROMECHANICAL SAMPLING METHODS AND THE NECESSARY APPARATUS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED SUFFICIENTLY FOR ADEQUATE EVALUATION. TWO GENERAL APPROACHES TO EVALUATION OF TIME COMPRESSED SPEECH ARE TESTS OF ABILITY TO REPEAT MESSAGES ACCURATELY AND TESTS OF COMPREHENSION OF LISTENING SELECTIONS. FACTORS SHOWN TO AFFECT INTELLIGIBILITY AND COMPREHENSION INCLUDE STIMULUS VARIABLES (THE CONTEXT IN WHICH THE SPEECH SIGNAL IS PRESENTED AS WELL AS THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SIGNAL ITSELF) AND ORGANISMIC VARIABLES (THE LISTENER'S AGE, SEX, EDUCATION, INTELLIGENCE, AND PRIOR RELEVANT EXPERIENCE). RESULTS OF SEVERAL STUDIES, WHEN CONSIDERED COLLECTIVELY, INDICATE THAT WORK INTELLIGIBILITY IS HAMPERED WHEN WORDS ARE COMPRESSED BY THE SPEECH CHANGING METHOD. WHEN THE SAMPLING METHOD IS USED, A COMPRESSION OF CONSIDERABLE MAGNITUDE IS REQUIRED BEFORE WORK INTELLIGIBILITY IS SUBSTANTIALLY IMPAIRED. PERCEPTUAL AND COGNITIVE PROBLEMS CONFRONTING THE LISTENER OF COMPRESSED SPEECH ARE DISCUSSED. A MODEL FOR SHORT TERM MEMORY IS USED TO ACCOUNT FOR THE DIFFERENCES IN THE EFFECT ON WORD INTELLIGIBILITY AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION OFINCREASING WORD RATE. GRAPHS PRESENT RESULTS, AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS 41 ITEMS. (KH)