inferential reading ability

Ability to deduce facts or ideas not specifically expressed within a text, commonly known as being able to ‘read between the lines’.

Literature makes considerable use of inference. This is a subtle means of communication, and relies heavily on the sensitivity of the reader to what is implied by the text. When Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol that Scrooge liked to ‘edge his way along the crowded paths of humanity’, he implies that Scrooge disliked human contact, and the sensitive reader understands this.