Learning new words: How does reading experience impact lexical storage in adults?

Individuals with an extended vocabulary understand a broader range of texts and conversations than those with less lexical knowledge. In young readers, we know that the growth of vocabulary is driven by incidental learning of new words during reading. Such learning continues in adults who are frequently exposed to new words during reading.
The aim of the project is to examine how orthographic representations of new words emerge in skilled readers. This question has been little investigated in adults, and most of the time with laboratory experimental designs very different from what happens in daily life. In contrast, this project will use ecological designs to examine three main issues: 1) to what extent the new orthographic representations stored in memory are initially fragmented, 2) to what extend they remains plastic over time, and 3) how they are gradually integrated in the pre-existing network of orthographic representations.
 

Spokesperson

 

Fabienne Chetail
Laboratoire Cognition Langage et Développement (CRCN)
Faculty of Psychology and Education

Dates
Created on September 11, 2018