The font-size effect on judgments of learning: Does it exemplify fluency effects or reflect people’s beliefs about memory?

Abstract

• Judgments of learning are higher for words presented in larger than smaller fonts. • Processing fluency presumably drives the effect of font size on judgments. • To date, however, no one has directly investigated the contribution of fluency. • New evidence indicates that fluency does not contribute to the font-size effect. • Font size influence judgments vis-à-vis people’s beliefs about memory. Evidence suggests that processing fluency affects many kinds of judgments. For instance, when words are presented either in large (48 point) or smaller (18 point) font sizes during study, people’s judgments of learning (JOLs) are higher for the words presented in the larger font size. This font - size effect presumably arises because items presented in a larger font size are easier to process at study, which in turn leads to higher JOLs. In the present studies, we evaluated this fluency hypothesis against an alternative one that the font-size effect occurs because people believe that words printed in a large font size are better remembered. In Experiments 1 and 2, we measured differences in processing fluency during study to evaluate whether fluency could account for any of the relationship between font size and JOLs. In Experiments 3a and 3b, college students read about the font-size experiment and then predicted whether hypothetical particpiants would better remember the large or smaller words. In Experiment 4, we evaluated whether the effect occurred for prestudy JOLs, which are made prior to studying the to-be-learned words and hence cannot be affected by processing fluency. Surprisingly, the evidence across experiments supported the belief hypothesis and did not support the fluency hypothesis. Thus, the font-size effect does not exemplify the effect of fluency on JOLs, and more generally, these outcomes suggest that measuring processing fluency is essential for establishing its role in people’s judgments and decision making.