Reading times on unfamiliar words decrease non-linearly, following an S-shaped curve, as exposures accumulate during natural reading¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r? · q3
Currency · newest study 2017 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2022: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q3 i? Growth curve modeling revealed that reading times on unfamiliar words decreased non-linearly, following an S-shaped curve across repeated exposures. → Aline Godfroid 2017

Evidence¶

Aline Godfroid 2017¶

Aline Godfroid, Jieun Ahn, Ina Choi, Laura Ballard, Yaqiong Cui, Suzanne Johnston, Shinhye Lee, Abdhi Sarkar and Hyung-Jo Yoon (2017). Incidental vocabulary learning in a natural reading context: an eye-tracking study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Volume 21, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728917000219

q3 · i? · associational · r?

Growth curve analysis of eye-tracking data from native and non-native English speakers reading an authentic English novel showed reading times on unfamiliar words decreased non-linearly, "following an S shaped curve". No effect size is printed for the curve shape.

"Growth curve modeling revealed a non-linear decrease in reading times that followed an S shaped curve"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

Decoding — outcome: instruction changes it

Vocabulary Knowledge Grows Incrementally With Repeated Encounters In Varied Contexts — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
Reading times for unknown words decrease significantly after three to four encounters, and by eight encounters unknown words are read like known words — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
Number of exposures was the strongest predictor of incidental vocabulary learning of both word form and meaning — related
Total reading time independently contributed to the learning of word meaning — related
Single exposures yield partial word knowledge, and repeated encounters in varied contexts build complete word meaning (fast mapping then full mapping) — related
Participants respond increasingly faster to stimuli presented more often during the incidental letter-search task — related
Eighth-grade students acquire measurable partial knowledge of unfamiliar word meanings incidentally while reading natural text, with a small but statistically reliable context-learning effect — related
Per-exposure learning gains decrease as the number of exposures increases: a small but significant negative linear trend in the normalized incidental learning effect — related

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`s-shaped-reading-time-decrease-repeated-exposure`
`title`	`Reading times on unfamiliar words decrease non-linearly, following an S-shaped curve, as exposures accumulate during natural reading`
`description`	`Reading times on unfamiliar words decrease non-linearly, following an S-shaped curve, as exposures accumulate during natural reading`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`moderate`
`newest_evidence`	`2017`
`source_checked`	`2026-10-20`
`recheck_by`	`2022`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-15`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `aline-godfroid-2017`

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