Associations between fiction exposure, reading habits, expository and narrative text comprehension in young adults

TABULLO, ÁNGEL; CHIÓFALO, MARÍA FLORENCIA

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión anual SAN 2020; 2020

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

Print exposure is one of the main predictors of reading comprehension in children andadults. The present study analyzed the association between high quality literary fictionexposure (classics, laureate writers) and popular genre fiction (best sellers), readinghabits and comprehension of narrative and expository texts. Our sample consisted of 215young adults (84% of them female, M = 24,35 ± 7,35 years). Participants completed areading habits questionnaire, an Author Recognition Test (including high quality literaryfiction authors and popular genre authors) and two standard tests of expository andnarrative text comprehension. 83 subjects also completed measures of verbal and nonverbal intelligence. Linear regression models showed that the only significant predictorsof expository (R2 = 0,193) and narrative (R2 = 0,193) (p?s < 0.001) text types were: ARTliterary fiction (Expository: β = 0,337, Narrative: β = 0,254, p?s < 0.025) and maternaleducation (Expository: β = 0,162, p = 0,024; Narrative: β = 0,219, p = 0,002). Theseeffects remained after controlling for verbal and non-verbal intelligence. The resultssuggests that reading literary fiction imposes higher cognitive demands, particularly onhigh order inference making processes, improving comprehension for all text types. Theadditional effect of maternal education highlights the importance of the mother in thehome literacy environment, which is probably mediated through linguistic input andliteracy practices.