Date created: 2024-03-22 10:51 AM | Last Updated: 2024-04-03 10:40 AM

Category: Project

Description: SUBMITTED. Regular print exposure is thought to benefit reading and language processes: those who read more have a larger vocabulary and better spelling and comprehension skills. Yet, there is little to no direct evidence that exposure to print facilitates reading. Here, we used an ecologically valid design to test the impact of print exposure on the early stages of reading in skilled adult readers. Participants read a novel at their own pace. Reading was followed by a lexical decision task, in which the positive trials were words that were encountered in the novel and matched controls, not encountered in the novel. If exposure during reading had a positive impact on subsequent word recognition, encountered words would be processed more efficiently than not-encountered words (exposure effect). This effect was obtained in three experiments. In addition, the effect was not modulated by the amount of exposure (1 vs. 3 occurrences in the text; Experiment 1), or the timing between reading and the exposure test (immediately after reading vs. on the following day; Experiment 3). However, the effect was present only in low-frequency words (Experiment 3). Interpretations of the exposure effect in terms of activation threshold and lexical quality are discussed.