Hughes-Berheim, Sarah S., Cheimariou, Spyridoula, Shelley-Tremblay, John F., Scofield, Jason, Newman, Sharlene D., Cutting, Laurie E., & Morett, Laura M. (2025). Learning words orthographically enhances subsequent word processing during sentence reading: Extending the visual word learning advantage. *Scientific Studies of Reading, 29*(4), 412-431. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2025.2519109
Previous research shows that learning new words by seeing them written (using visual or orthographic information) helps people remember those words better than learning them by hearing them spoken (using auditory or phonological information). However, no study has yet looked at whether this advantage of learning words visually also helps when reading those words later in sentences. This study reports results from a larger project that used a new method to see if learning words by sight, compared to by sound, helps people process those words better during reading. Twenty-six adult native English speakers (mostly female, average age about 20) learned the meanings and pronunciations of 90 rare English words either by seeing them written or by hearing them spoken. After learning, they read sentences where the words either fit well or didn’t fit well with the sentence’s meaning. The study also looked at other skills like reading comprehension, ability to sound out words (phonological decoding), and spelling to see how these might affect the connection between how the words were learned and how they were processed later. The results showed that the way words were learned (visually or auditorily) affected how accurately and quickly people understood them. People’s spelling ability helped improve understanding when words were learned visually, while general reading skill helped with reading speed depending on how the words were learned. These findings highlight the importance of creating strong mental word representations when learning new words to help with reading later. They suggest that adults build stronger mental word images when learning words by seeing them written, compared to hearing them spoken, unless they have very good spelling skills, which help link the two ways of learning.
Figure 1. Word Learning Condition.
