Adolescents Activate Phonology When Reading Familiar Words

A central debate in reading research is how phonology functions in written word recognition. There are different perspectives, from the idea that phonology is automatically engaged to access word meaning (prelexical coding) to the opposing view that phonology plays no role in meaning activation (postlexical coding). To tease apart these perspectives, we employed a newly developed written word version of the visual world paradigm (VWP) to measure the real-time activation of phonology during familiar-word reading in adolescents.

A total of 30 monolingual adolescents aged 11-14 years were tested using a novel written word version of the VWP. In this paradigm, participants saw four pictures on a screen and clicked the picture of the word they read (e.g., "BAT") while their eye movements were tracked. Pictures represented the target word (e.g., "BAT"), two unrelated words (e.g., "HOOF," "MILK"), and an anadrome (e.g., "TAB"). Anadromes, which can be orthographic and phonological such as "BAT"-"TAB," orthographic such as "LEG"-"GEL," or phonological such as "JAB"-"BADGE," separate phonology from orthography.

Our finding indicates that phonological anadromes were activated early and robustly, supporting the prelexical view. A comparison with adults demonstrates that phonological activation was similar across age groups, although it was stronger in adolescents.

These results from the current study suggest that readers consistently activate phonology, even for familiar words, regardless of age or language proficiency. This finding provides additional empirical support for phonics-based approaches to reading instruction.