The Role of Context, Familiarity and Word Frequency in the Processing of Idiom Final Words

The current study explored whether word frequency effects are altered when words are read as part of idiomatic phrases. Participants read a series of high or low familiarity idiom phrases ending with either high or low frequency target words in contexts that supported either the literal or figurative interpretation of the idiom phrases. Target words in high familiarity idioms were processed faster than target words in low familiarity idioms. Faster reading times for high frequency target words than for low frequency words (word frequency effect) were found in gaze duration and total time reading measurements. Importantly, the word frequency effect was eliminated in first fixation duration. The results suggest that inclusion of a word in an idiom phrase changes the way that word is initially processed.