The role of age of acquisition and word frequency in reading: Evidence from eye fixation durations

Over the past several decades, many researchers have examined how a word's age of acquisition (AoA) contributes to word recognition. Most of these studies, however, have used word-in-isolation experiments. At the same time, many studies have utilized eye tracking techniques to investigate the word frequency effect during reading. The present experiments sought to tie these two types of research together by investigating the influence of AoA and frequency on word processing. Specifically, eye movements were recorded as participants read sentences. The first experiment orthogonally manipulated frequency and AoA. In Experiment 2, participants read sentences that contained target words that varied in AoA but were controlled on various measures of word frequency. The same participants also read sentences containing high and low frequency words that were controlled on AoA. Results from these two experiments converged to demonstrate that both frequency and AoA affect eye fixation durations during sentence reading.