Effects of Print Exposure on an Online Lexical Decision Task: A Direct Replication Using a Web-Based Experimental Procedure

Abstract

Due to the global pandemic, behavioral sciences including psychology that have traditionally relied on face-to-face data collection methods are facing a crisis. Given these circumstances, the present study was designed as a web-based replication of the findings reported in Lee et al. (2019) on the relationship between print exposure measured by the Korean Author Recognition Test (KART) and online measures of word processing using the lexical decision task and offline measures of language ability. We used the PsychoPy3 and Pavlovia platform in which participants were presented with a series of tasks in an entirely web-based environment. We found that scores on the KART were correlated with scores on a measure of language skills as well as self-reported reading habits. In addition, KART scores modulated the word frequency effect in the lexical decision task such that participants with higher KART scores tended to have smaller frequency effects. These results were highly consistent with previous lab-based studies including Lee et al. indicating that web-based experimental procedures are a viable alternative to lab-based face-to-face experiments.

Effects of age and word frequency on Korean visual word recognition: Evidence from a web-based large-scale lexical-decision task.

“…The task is to select only the names of authors from the list, and test scores are calculated by subtracting the number of selected nonauthors from the number of correctly selected authors (maximum score: 40 points). Scores on the author recognition test have been found to correlate with other language abilities such as word identification, listening comprehension, and word naming (Choi et al, 2015; D. Kim, Lowder, & Choi, 2021; H.…”

“…Although such lab-based studies provide experimenters with control over experiment settings, they also have limitations such as possible bias in sampling, high cost for data collection, and difficulties in having face-to-face meetings with participants due to unexpected conditions such as COVID-19. The drawbacks of lab-based studies have recently led to a new paradigm of collecting behavioral data through web-based experiments (e.g., Aguasvivas et al, 2020; Anwyl-Irvine et al, 2020; Chetverikov & Upravitelev, 2016; Kim, 2021; D. Kim, Lowder, & Choi, 2021; Semmelmann & Weigelt, 2017).…”