Development and validation of the simplified Chinese Author Recognition Test: Evidence from eye movements of Chinese adults in Mainland China

BackgroundIt is well evident that individuals' levels of print exposure are significantly correlated with their reading ability across languages, and an author recognition test is commonly used to measure print exposure objectively. For the first time, the current work developed and validated a Simplified Chinese Author Recognition Test (SCART) and examined its role in explaining Chinese online reading.MethodsIn Study 1, we constructed the SCART for readers of simplified Chinese and validated the test using data collected from 203 young adults in Mainland China. Participants were measured on the SCART and three self-report tasks about their reading experiences and habits. Study 2 recruited additional 68 young adults in Mainland and measured their print exposure (with the same tasks used in Study 1), reading-related cognitive ability (working memory, rapid automatic naming, Chinese character reading, and vocabulary knowledge), and Chinese online reading via an eye-tracking passage reading task.ResultsResults of Study 1 support the high reliability and validity of the SCART. Results of Study 2 indicate that SCART scores significantly predicted participants' online reading processing while controlling for subjective reading experiences and habits, and reading-related cognitive abilities. Across two studies, we found converging evidence that the in-depth recognition of the authors (i.e., participants have read the books written by these authors) appears to be a better indicator of print exposure than the superficial recognition of the author names.ConclusionsTaken together, this work filled in the gap in the literature by providing an evidence-based, objective print exposure measure for simplified Chinese and contributes to a broader understanding of print exposure and online reading processing across different writing systems. What is already known about this topicIndividuals' print exposure correlates with reading ability across languages, including Chinese.An author recognition test (ART) is commonly used to measure readers' objective print exposure across languages.ART scores predict offline reading performances across languages and online reading processing in readers of English.What this paper addsThe simplified Chinese ART developed here works well for readers of simplified Chinese, with the largest reader population worldwide.Deep knowledge in author recognition reflects print exposure better than does surface knowledge.ART scores also predict online reading processing in the case of Chinese.Implications for theory, policy or practiceThe simplified Chinese ART is now available for future researchers and practitioners.Future researchers may also consider assessing deep print knowledge in their ARTs.The simplified Chinese ART provides a cost-effective way to estimate readers' online reading processing and patterns.