Print Exposure Research Articles

Word skipping as an indicator of individual reading style during literary reading.

Decades of research have established that the content of language (e.g. lexical characteristics of words) predicts eye movements during reading. Here we investigate whether there exist individual differences in ‘stable’ eye movement patterns during narrative reading. We computed Euclidean distances from correlations between gaze durations time courses (word level) across 102 participants who each read three literary narratives in Dutch. The resulting distance matrices were compared between narratives using a Mantel test. The results show that correlations between the scaling matrices of different narratives are relatively weak (r ≤ .11) when missing data points are ignored. However, when including these data points as zero durations (i.e. skipped words), we found significant correlations between stories (r > .51). Word skipping was significantly positively associated with print exposure but not with self-rated attention and story-world absorption, suggesting that more experienced readers are more likely to skip words, and do so in a comparable fashion. We interpret this finding as suggesting that word skipping might be a stable individual eye movement pattern.

Print exposure across the reading life span

Leisure reading is a main contributor to print exposure, which is in turn related to individual differences in reading and language skills. The Author Recognition Test (ART) is a brief and objective measure of print exposure that has been used in reading research since the 1990s. Life span studies have reported contradicting results concerning age differences in print exposure, possibly due to the use of ART versions that differed regarding authors’ mean publication year. We investigated effects of participant age and authors’ mean publication year, literary level, and circulation frequency on author recognition probability between adolescence and old age (N = 339; age 13–77 years). An explanatory item response analysis showed that participant age and circulation frequency were positively related to recognition probability. Mean publication year was negatively related to recognition probability, indicating that recent authors who have been widely read for only a few years were less often recognized than classic authors who have been widely read for several decades. The relation between participant age and recognition probability was moderated by author variables. For classic authors, the recognition probability increased between adolescence and old age. By contrast, for recent authors, the recognition probability increased only between adolescence and middle age. Our results suggest that the mean publication year is a key author variable for the detection of print exposure differences between young, middle-aged and older adults. We discuss implications for author selection when updating the ART and for measuring print exposure in age-diverse samples.

Print exposure explains individual differences in using syntactic but not semantic cues for pronoun comprehension

Comprehenders have been shown to use both syntactic and semantic cues to understand pronouns like he and she. In Ana threw the ball to Liz. She…, there is a syntactic bias to assign “she” to the previous subject (Ana), and a semantic bias to assign it to the goal referent (Liz). How do people learn these biases? We tested how sensitivity to these cues is modulated by linguistic experience, measured with an Author Recognition Task (Stanovich & West, 1989). In two experiments, we found both the subject and goal biases overall, but higher print exposure only predicted use of the subject bias, not the goal bias. Our results suggest that the subject bias, and not the goal bias, may be learned from exposure.

Unraveling the Relation Between Reading Comprehension and Print Exposure.

The purpose of this study was to test the directionality of influence between reading comprehension (RC) and print exposure (PE), thereby estimating genetic and environmental effects of this relation. The sample consisted of 910 twins in fourth through ninth grades (Mage =12.33years, SD=1.41) from the Florida Twin Project on Reading, Behavior, and Environment. Using direction-of-causation model in a twin design, results supported a direction of influence running from RC to PE. This relation was underpinned by genetic and environmental factors of RC as well as PE. Implications for reading education are discussed.

THE ROLE OF PRINT EXPOSURE IN SUPPORTING COGNITIVE ABILITY AMONG OLDER ADULTS

Reading is an activity that has long been thought to have beneficial effects on cognitive ability, however, little is known about the effects of long-term reading engagement on cognition among older adults. Pre-test data are reported from an ongoing study of the effects of a literacy-based intervention on cognition among older adults. Participants (66.7% female) ranging from 60 to 79 years of age with education ranging from 11 to 19 years were administered a battery of measures, including print exposure checklists, which are objective indices for assessing long-term reading-related activities, as well as cognitive assessments. A composite measure of print exposure was based on the Author Recognition Test, Magazine Recognition Test, Non-fiction Author Recognition Test, and Fiction Recognition Test (alpha=.92). Cognition was assessed in a comprehensive battery, including measures of verbal ability, working memory, episodic memory, and verbal fluency (alpha=.83). Print exposure was marginally related to self-reported time spent reading (r=.27, p.4), suggesting criterion-related validity. Age-related declines were not evident for any of our cognitive measures in this sample, t(46)’s.8, and there was a modest increase in reading engagement with age (r=.36, p=.01). Controlling for verbal ability, print exposure had a significant positive influence on global cognition (standardized beta=0.38, p=.01); however, these effects were specific to episodic memory and verbal fluency, t(46)>2, p<.05. These preliminary findings are suggestive of selective cognitive benefits from continued literacy engagement in reading in later life.

Time to read Young Adult fiction: print exposure and linguistic correlates in adolescents

Young Adult literature is a growing genre. This study examined print exposure within Adult fiction, and Children’s and Young Adult fiction in 90 adolescents (Mage = 16.3). Results showed that scores on an Author Recognition Test (ART) containing the names of Children’s and Young Adult fiction authors were positively correlated with adolescents’ general reading and spelling abilities and single-word reading speed. The same pattern was either weaker, or absent, with scores on an ART containing Adult authors names. Furthermore, recognizing Children’s and Young Adult authors predicted performance on the adolescents’ standardized reading and spelling measures, above and beyond recognizing adult authors. Scores on the ART containing Children’s and Young Adult authors also predicted reading speed, even after controlling for general reading and spelling abilities. These findings add to three decades of inquiry into the cognitive correlates of print exposure.

From the Editors

From the Editors

Print exposure predicts pronoun comprehension strategies in children.

Language development requires children to learn how to understand ambiguous pronouns, as in Panda Bear is having lunch with Puppy. He wants a pepperoni slice. Adults tend to link he with Puppy, the prior grammatical subject, but young children either fail to exhibit this bias (Arnold, Brown-Schmidt & Trueswell, 2007) or do so more slowly than adults (Hartshorne et al., 2015a; Song & Fisher, 2005). In the current study, we test whether language exposure affects this bias in elementary-school-age children. Children listened to stories like the one above, and answered questions like "Who wants a pepperoni slice?" which reveal their pronoun interpretation. Individual variation in the rate of selecting the subject character correlated with measures of print exposure, such that children who read more are more likely to follow the subject bias. This is the first study to establish that print exposure affects spoken pronoun comprehension in children.

From ‘sheep’ to ‘amphibian’: English vocabulary teaching strategies in South African township schools

Background: South African learners have performed consistently poorly in reading assessments. This paper addresses two key components in improving reading literacy: vocabulary development and teacher knowledge and skills required for quality vocabulary instruction. Aim: This small-scale exploratory study reports on the English vocabulary teaching strategies of eight Grade 3 teachers in South African township schools serving poor communities and their implementation of these strategies in practice. Setting: The Western Cape teachers taught English Home Language (HL) learners. The Eastern Cape teachers taught Xhosa HL and English First Additional Language (FAL) learners. Methods: Teacher interviews and classroom observations. Results: The teachers used a range of basic vocabulary teaching strategies that complied with evidence-based vocabulary teaching strategies identified in the literature. However, most of the strategies employed did not reach an advanced level of active learning in which students were challenged and took ownership of their own vocabulary learning. Results showed that especially the English FAL teachers relied heavily on their L1 for vocabulary instruction. Conclusion: Grade 3 teachers in South African schools that serve poor communities are capable of providing rich print exposure in their classrooms showing that schools can, to a certain extent, play a compensatory role for the limited literacy opportunities in homes of children from low socio-economic backgrounds. However, in order for the learners to develop a more durable, rich vocabulary their teachers would need to engage in more interactive and in-depth instruction. Implications for policy are discussed.

English vocabulary exposure in South African township schools: Pitfalls and opportunities

Background: This small-scale study investigated English vocabulary exposure from graded readers and teacher talk in Grade 3 classrooms in poorly resourced township schools in South Africa. Vocabulary is one of the key building blocks for becoming a fluent reader. Most words are learnt through incidental exposure to oral or written language. Objectives: This study is a first attempt to investigate opportunities for incidental vocabulary exposure in poorly resourced classrooms in South Africa. Method: A corpus linguistics approach was used to analyse a written corpus of 57 143 tokens and a spoken corpus of 12 242 tokens. Results: The study showed that there are vast differences between levels of written and spoken vocabulary in the classrooms and that the role for oral vocabulary exposure in classrooms is restricted. Spoken vocabulary registered above the K-3 word frequency level largely came from teachers’ read alouds of print materials. Conclusion: The study findings show that even in contexts where print exposure is limited, oral language cannot compensate for the richness of written vocabulary. Situational constraints, such as lack of books, negatively influenced the effective use of graded readers. Opportunities for incidental vocabulary learning, as well as implications for policy and further research, are discussed.

Relationships between fiction media, genre, and empathic abilities

AbstractFiction enables readers to simulate the social experiences of characters and may facilitate prosociality. Research has indicated that fiction print exposure positively relates to empathy and may promote altruistic behaviors. Whether associations hold across different media formats and thematic genres remains unclear. This study took a multidimensional approach to both fiction engagement and empathic abilities. Specifically, it aimed to replicate previous findings that lifetime fiction exposure positively predicts empathy, and to extend this literature through an exploration of the relationships between media and genre formats, empathy and altruism. Participants (N = 404) completed a multidimensional task measure of fiction media exposure and answered questions about fiction engagement, empathic and altruistic tendencies. Results showed divergent associations between fiction format, genre, and empathic abilities, and fiction media exposure positively predicted the tendencies to become transported into narratives and to help others. Engagement with fiction formats and thematic genres may differentially support adults’ prosocial development.

Preservice Teacher Knowledge, Print Exposure, and Planning for Instruction

AbstractTeachers who are knowledgeable about the basic structure of the English language incorporate this knowledge into their instruction. In this study, the authors explored a similar relation between knowledge of print exposure and planning for a grade 5 classroom. The personal reading experience (print exposure) of 106 preservice teachers was measured for three genres: storybooks, children's and young adult literature, and adult fiction. Teacher knowledge was measured by two tasks: defining terms and evaluating instructional practices. Planning for instruction was measured by asking participants to plan for a week of grade 5 language arts instruction. Correlational analyses revealed that print exposure, teacher knowledge, and time allocated for student reading in a grade 5 classroom were positively related. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed that familiarity with authors of children's and young adult literature accounted for significant variance on both knowledge tasks even after controlling for other forms of print exposure (storybooks and adult fiction). The data suggest that knowledge about print exposure and personal reading experience, especially of children's and young adult literature, are both associated with planning for instruction in the upper elementary grades. The results are discussed in relation to teacher training.

Development and assessment of the Korean Author Recognition Test

This research reports the development and evaluation of a Korean Author Recognition Test (KART), designed as a measure of print exposure among young adults. Based on the original, English-language version of the Author Recognition Test (ART), the KART demonstrates significant relationships with offline measures of language ability, as well as online measures of word recognition. In particular, KART scores were related to participants' responses on the Comparative Reading Habits (CRH) checklist, suggesting that KART is a valid measure of print exposure. In addition, KART scores showed reliable correlations with offline measures of vocabulary knowledge and language comprehension. Finally, results from a lexical decision task showed that KART scores modulated the magnitude of the word familiarity effect, such that the effect was smaller for participants with higher KART scores The results suggest that the ART is a language-universal task that measures print exposure, which is useful for explaining individual differences in language comprehension abilities and word recognition processes.

L2 anxiety and the foreign language reading anxiety scale: Listening to the evidence

Second language (L2) educators have proposed a unique anxiety for general L2 learning and an anxiety specific to L2 reading. Since the early 1990s, the L2 anxiety concept has been challenged on theoretical and empirical grounds. In this investigation, U.S. high school L2 learners were administered the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) and measures of first language (L1) skills, L1 phonological memory and working memory, L1 print exposure, L1 reading attitudes, L1 metacognitive ability, L2 aptitude, and L2 achievement, then were followed through 2 to 3 years of Spanish. Results showed that the FLRAS explained significant unique variance in most L1 skills and L2 aptitude. Hierarchical regressions showed that the FLRAS explained growth in L2 achievement from first‐ to second‐ to third‐year Spanish. Findings suggest that the FLRAS is likely to measure individual differences in or self‐perceptions of students’ language learning skills rather than a specific anxiety for L2 learning. Implications for the teaching of L2s to U.S. students are discussed.

Experience, Aptitude, and Individual Differences in Linguistic Attainment: A Comparison of Native and Nonnative Speakers

AbstractThis study compares the performance of native speakers and adult second language (L2) learners on tasks tapping proficiency in grammar, vocabulary, and collocations. In addition, data were collected on several predictors of individual differences in linguistic attainment, including some related to language experience (print exposure, education, and—for L2 speakers—length of residence and use of English) and some relating to an individual's aptitude to learn (language analytic ability and nonverbal intelligence) as well as age and (for L2 speakers) age of arrival. As anticipated, the native group outperformed L2 speakers on all three language measures, although the effect sizes were much larger for collocations than for grammar or vocabulary. Crucially, there were vast individual differences in both groups and considerable overlap between groups, particularly for grammar. Regression analyses revealed both similarities and differences between native and nonnative speakers in which nonlinguistic measures best predict performance on the language tasks.

Experience, aptitude and individual differences in native language ultimate attainment

Several recent studies have demonstrated that some native speakers do not fully master some fairly basic grammatical constructions of their language, thus challenging the widely-held assumption that all native speakers converge on the same grammar. This study investigates the extent of individual differences in adult native speakers' knowledge of a range of constructions as well as vocabulary size and collocational knowledge, and explores the relationship between these three aspects of linguistic knowledge and four nonlinguistic predictors: nonverbal IQ, language aptitude, print exposure and education. Individual differences in grammatical attainment were comparable to those observed for vocabulary and collocations; furthermore, performance on tests assessing speakers' knowledge of these three aspects of language was correlated (rs from 0.38 to 0.57). Two of the nonlinguistic measures, print exposure and education, were found to contribute to variance in all three language tests, albeit to different extents. In addition, nonverbal IQ was found to be relevant for grammar and vocabulary, and language aptitude for grammar. These findings are broadly compatible with usage-based models of language and problematic for modular theories.

Individual differences in decoding skill, print exposure, and cortical structure in young adults

ABSTRACT This exploratory study investigated relations between individual differences in cortical grey matter structure and young adult readers’ cognitive profiles. Whole-brain analyses revealed neuroanatomical correlations with word and nonword reading ability (decoding), and experience with printed matter. Decoding was positively correlated with grey matter volume (GMV) in left superior temporal sulcus, and thickness (GMT) in right superior temporal gyrus. Print exposure was negatively correlated with GMT in left inferior frontal gyrus (pars opercularis) and left fusiform gyrus (including the visual word form area). Both measures also correlated with supramarginal gyrus (SMG), but in spatially distinct subregions: decoding was positively associated with GMV in left anterior SMG, and print exposure was negatively associated with GMT in left posterior SMG. Our comprehensive approach to assessment both confirms and refines our understanding of the novel relation between the structure of pSMG and proficient reading, and unifies previous research relating cortical structure and reading skill.

Why do children read more? The influence of reading ability on voluntary reading practices.

This study investigates the causal relationships between reading and print exposure and investigates whether the amount children read outside school determines how well they read, or vice versa. Previous findings from behavioural studies suggest that reading predicts print exposure. Here, we use twin-data and apply the behaviour-genetic approach of direction of causality modelling, suggested by Heath etal. (), to investigate the causal relationships between these two traits. Partial data were available for a large sample of twin children (N=11,559) and 262 siblings, all enrolled in the Netherlands Twin Register. Children were assessed around 7.5years of age. Mothers completed questionnaires reporting children's time spent on reading activities and reading ability. Additional information on reading ability was available through teacher ratings and performance on national reading tests. For siblings reading test, results were available. The reading ability of the twins was comparable to that of the siblings and national norms, showing that twin findings can be generalized to the population. A measurement model was specified with two latent variables, Reading Ability and Print Exposure, which correlated .41. Heritability analyses showed that Reading Ability was highly heritable, while genetic and environmental influences were equally important for Print Exposure. We exploited the fact that the two constructs differ in genetic architecture and fitted direction of causality models. The results supported a causal relationship running from Reading Ability to Print Exposure. How much and how well children read are moderately correlated. Individual differences in print exposure are less heritable than individual differences in reading ability. Importantly, the present results suggest that it is the children's reading ability that determines how much they choose to read, rather than vice versa.

The apple doesn’t fall from the tree: parents’ reading-related knowledge and children’s reading outcomes

This study investigated parents’ reading-related knowledge and its association with children’s reading outcomes. Forty-two parent–child dyads were assessed when children were in Kindergarten and 39 of the children were followed the subsequent year. Reading measures were administered in Kindergarten. In Grade 1, children received reading and arithmetic measures. Parents completed a questionnaire involving (general) cultural knowledge, print exposure, and reading-related knowledge associated with the identification of regular and irregular word spellings. All parent variables accounted for unique variance in children’s reading scores in Kindergarten, however, only parents’ reading-related knowledge continued to do so into Grade 1. Our findings are consistent with the research conducted with teachers underlining the association between reading-related knowledge and students’ reading performances. The current study contributes to the limited literature focusing on parents’ reading related knowledge. The data presented here suggest that parental reading-related knowledge is associated with children’s reading outcomes in both Kindergarten and Grade 1.

Direct and indirect effects of print exposure on silent reading fluency

Print exposure is an important causal factor in reading development. Little is known, however, of the mechanisms through which print exposure exerts an effect onto reading. To address this gap, we examined the direct and indirect effects of print exposure on silent reading fluency among college students (n = 52). More specifically, we focused on phonetic decoding and sight word reading efficiency as potential mediators of the indirect effects of print exposure on silent reading fluency. Silent reading fluency was chosen as the outcome given that the natural reading experience occurs predominately in the silent mode. Results showed that the direct effect of print exposure on silent reading fluency was significant. Sight word reading efficiency partially mediated the indirect effect of print exposure on silent reading fluency. Phonetic decoding efficiency also partially mediated the indirect effect of print exposure on silent reading fluency, but only when followed by sight word reading efficiency to form a serial and joint mechanism (i.e., print exposure → phonetic decoding → sight word reading → silent reading fluency). Present findings highlight two mechanisms through which print exposure exerts an effect onto silent reading fluency, both of which involve sight word reading efficiency.