The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension on

Second and Fifth Grade Children: Bigger Is Not Always

Better
Tami Katzir1*, Shirley Hershko1, Vered Halamish2
1 Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities & Department of Learning Disabilities and Special Education, University of
Haifa, Haifa, Israel, 2 Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Abstract

Research on reading development has focused on the linguistic, cognitive, and recently, metacognitive skills children
must master in order to learn to read. Less focus has been devoted to how the text itself, namely the
perceptual features of the words, affects children’s learning and comprehension. In this study, we manipulated
perceptual properties of text by presenting reading passages in different font sizes, line lengths, and line spacing to
100 children in the second and fifth grades. For second graders (Experiment 1), decreasing font size, as well as
increasing line length, yielded significantly lower comprehension scores. Line spacing had no effect on performance.
For fifth graders (Experiment 2), decreasing font size yielded higher comprehension scores, yet there were no effects
for line length and line spacing. Results are discussed within a "desirable difficulty" approach to reading
development.

Citation: Katzir T, Hershko S, Halamish V (2013) The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension on Second and Fifth Grade Children: Bigger Is Not
Always Better. PLoS ONE 8(9): e74061. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0074061
Editor: Luis M Martinez, CSIC-Univ Miguel Hernandez, Spain
Received April 19, 2013; Accepted July 28, 2013; Published September 19, 2013
Copyright: © 2013 Katzir et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction features of text enhance reading comprehension among

second and fifth grade children.
Consider the subjective experience of a second grader
reading a text, poorly photocopied and written in a small font. In Reading Development and Reading Comprehension
contrast, imagine her reading large print, centered on the page, Developmental models of reading assume that reading is
and subjectively easy to read. Intuitively, one may think that made up of component skills [4-6]. These components begin
these perceptual and typographical factors are only related to with letter-sound recognition and then proceed to decoding
the child’s motivation to read and will not affect her skills. While each component is sufficient for a time, new skills
comprehension. Very little research has focused on potential must be achieved if reading proficiency is to increase. Later
developmental effects of manipulating physical properties of components include the development of efficiency,
print (e.g., print size, font type, etc.) [1-3]. In adults, for comprehension, and the ability to integrate and synthesize
example, it has been found that altering text presentation to a materials.
less familiar format, hence making it less perceptually fluent Children are assumed to progress from learning about print
(words in italics) led to better memory of studied material in itself to learning about the alphabet, sounds of the letters, and
adults and high school students [1]. Using a different letter groups [4]. During the initial period of learning to decode,
manipulation of text, another study found that extra large letter in the first and second grades, the reader is "glued to the print."
spacing enhanced the performance of word reading in children Reading is slow and laborious, as new readers still receive
with dyslexia [3]. Currently, due to scarce research, all that can many cues about how to decode words from the letters
be concluded is that the effects of altering text presentation themselves. By reading material that has familiar content and
may differ by the specific manipulation and by population. It language style, children develop the ability to use context to
may also affect different aspects of reading: rate, accuracy and decipher words, as well as fluent and effortless reading. By
comprehension. In this study, we focus on an understudied fourth grade, children are expected to be efficient readers,
question which is, can a mere manipulation of perceptual reading rapidly, comprehending complex materials, and making

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 The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension

inferences about the text [4,7,8]. A greater reliance on meaning materials, rather than blocking them, in a way that creates, at
is also evident. Characteristics of children in fourth grade and least temporarily, contextual interference for the learner [20].
above include the ability to concentrate less on the print and Interleaving has been found to produce stronger learning than
more on details and ideas. This developmental shift has been blocking, at least in the long run.
referred to as a shift from learning to read to reading in order to Yet another way to make learning more challenging is to
learn [4]. manipulate disfluency, the subjective metacognitive experience
The ultimate goal of reading development is efficient reading of difficulty associated with cognitive tasks. Disfluency has
comprehension, defined as a process of extracting and been found to be strongly related to confidence in the ability to
constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with remember new information [21], with greater disfluency yielding
written language [9]. What factors determine reading lower confidence. In turn, when learners are less confident in
comprehension? Empirical evidence demonstrates that how well they have learned the material, they are more likely to
phonological processing, rapid automatized naming, engage in more effortful and elaborative processing [22].
orthographic processing, and word identification [7], as well as Indeed, disfluency has been shown to impact cognitive
IQ [10], memory and attention [11], and higher order processes processing independently of actual cognitive difficulty (for
[12], all predict a significant portion of the variance in reading example, the amount of material to be studied) [23]. For
comprehension. However, even when these measures are example, a recent study has demonstrated that creating
entered into regression models, much of the variance in disfluency by presenting words upside-down for study
reading comprehension remains unexplained [13]. enhanced later recall for these words, compared to words that
These findings have resulted in a shift towards a multi- were presented right-side up [24]. It has also been shown that
dimensional view of reading comprehension that goes beyond disfluency leads people to process information more carefully
cognitive and linguistic processes. The RAND model of reading [25] and yields better oral comprehension [26]. Based on the
comprehension [14] suggests that in order to understand the above findings, we raise the following questions: Can
complex process of comprehension there is a need to manipulating perceptual features of text, which have been
concurrently examine a triangulation of the contribution of shown to create disfluency effects in adults, also lead to better
reader characteristics, text type, and environmental factors reading comprehension in children? Will the effects of the
[13,15,8,9]. Interestingly, while much work has focused on the manipulation depend on stages of reading development?
influence of the nature of the text type on reading (e.g.,
narrative vs. expository text) [14], very little work has focused The Developmental Effects of Manipulating Perceptual
on the typographical properties of text presentation. Could Presentation of Text
altering the perceptual features of the words, such as font size, Manipulations of perceptual features of text build upon the
line spacing, etc.’, actually lead to performance differences in assumption that the visual system makes use of relative size
reading comprehension? A central assumption in the reading as a perceptual cue that conveys important information
comprehension literature is that in order to improve regarding the proximity of a stimulus [27]. Oppenhiemer and
comprehension, the reader must improve his skills (e.g., his colleagues manipulated perceptual presentation of text
phonological skill, vocabulary, decoding abilities, reading rate). simply by adopting fonts that were more difficult to read [1,28]
However, what if comprehension can be improved by simply by choosing faded shades, small fonts, and unclear
changing factors that are external to the reader, such as the photocopying of text. A different way to manipulate text
typographical properties of the text, without changing its presentation and create text disfluency may be to manipulate
content? The current study was designed to address these the spacing between lines and line lengths, under the
questions. assumption that these changes pose greater challenge for
readers [29].
The Effects of Manipulating Perceptual Presentation on Manipulating text presentation may affect reading rate and
Cognitive Performance accuracy [29] as well as feeling of proficiency. Indeed, studies
Many education researchers believe that reducing focusing on feelings of proficiency, mainly in adults, report that
extraneous cognitive load is always beneficial for the learning processing words presented in larger fonts was subjectively
situation. If a student was able to learn new information easily, more fluent than processing words presented in smaller fonts
both the student and the teacher are likely to label the session [30,31]. Importantly, it has been found that simple
as successful regardless of whether the student is able to interventions, such as presenting educational materials on
retrieve the information later [16]. However, research in PowerPoint slides and handouts in italics (which children are
cognitive psychology suggests just the opposite. In many less accustomed to) as opposed to presenting the same text in
cases, the more challenging a learning session is, the better a standard, non-italesized format, engaged both university and
subsequent long term memory for the material studied in that high school students in more elaborative processing and even
session will be [17]. It may be that greater cognitive subsequently resulted in improved educational outcomes,
engagement leads to deeper processing, which then facilitates including higher grades [1]. In contrast, a study of word lists
encoding and subsequent retrieval [18]. Thus, it has been showed that font size did not affect recall [performance] among
found that the most effective learning strategies involve university students, though it did affect their judgment of
introducing difficulties for the learner. One clear example of a learning, with larger fonts associated with greater estimations
"desirable difficulty" [17,19] is the interleaving of to-be-learned of remembrance [32]. In these studies the participants were all

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 The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension

skilled readers that were passed the initial phases of reading effect on older children. In addition, it did not affect recall in
development. However, the effect of such manipulations may older university students. However, bolding or italicizing text did
be different for poor readers as well as for younger children. improve long-term memory in older high school and university
Studies of adults that have taken into account variability in students. To the extent that text presentation affects reading
reading skills have found that manipulating text presentation rate and accuracy, we would expect it to influence reading
has opposite effects on good and poor readers. Thus, comprehension as well. Thus, we hypothesized that for
increasing text difficulty by deleting letters led poor readers to younger readers, manipulating text presentation by increasing
show decreased recall, whereas good readers showed disfluency compared to the standard text they are used to
improved recall with letter deletion [33]. Based on these would impede comprehension, as they still receive important
findings, we suggest that manipulating perceptual presentation contextual cues from the print. For older children, who have
of text might have differential effects on reading already mastered the decoding and efficiency stages and thus
comprehension for skilled versus novice readers. rely less on actual visual cues, we hypothesized that increased
The majority of studies manipulating perceptual presentation disfluency (less familiar and accessibly text presentation) would
of text in children have manipulated font size and line length function as a desirable difficulty, resulting in deeper processing
and examined the effects on reading rate and accuracy and and thereby increasing comprehension.
have not looked at its effect on reading comprehension.
Interestingly, studies that examined font size found different The Current Experiments
effects for children at different stages of reading development: In the current experiments, we examined the effect of
A relatively small font size was found to decrease the reading perceptual fluency on reading comprehension in second and
rates of five- to seven-year-olds, but had no effect on children fifth grade children (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively).
in third to fifth grade [34]. Similarly, another study compared Specifically, we asked whether font size, line length, and line
the reading rates of children with dyslexia in second through spacing would affect performance on a reading comprehension
fourth grade and reading-level matched controls [35]. Dyslexic task. In addition, we asked whether these factors would
children benefited from larger fonts while their reading-level differentially affect children in earlier versus later stages of
matched peers, similar to the results of college students reading development.
previously described [32], showed no font size effects on
reading rate and accuracy. Experiment 1: Second Grade
Regarding line length, in a study on six-year-olds, no
differences were found in reading rate and accuracy between Experiment 1 was designed to examine how the perceptual
short and long lines, controlling for the number of words in a disfluency of text, created by decreasing font size, increasing
line [36]. However, another study found that large fonts were line length, and decreasing line spacing, affects reading
read as well as smaller fonts with large spacing between the comprehension among second graders.
words (which results in longer lines) [37]. Since there were no
conclusive results across the two studies, and as line length Method
and font size were concurrently manipulated in this study, Participants. Participants were 45 second graders (20 girls,
conclusions cannot be drawn regarding each factor in relation mean age 7.5 years) from elementary schools in Israel, mostly
to reading rate and accuracy. of middle- and upper-middle-class socioeconomic background.
Furthermore, the only study that looked at the effects of All children had rapid naming, reading and verbal abilities in the
manipulating text presentation on reading comprehension, in average range, based on standardized measures [39,40].
children found that fonts with decorations (i.e., disfluent fonts) The research conducted in this paper was approved by the
were comprehended as well as fonts without them [29]. university review board - The Ethics Committee Review Board-
However, based on the findings of the effects of font size and IRB. The members of the Helsinki committee in our university
line length on rate and accuracy of sentence reading, we would are Shoshi Zalka and Avi Karni. Informed written consent was
except they may also influence reading comprehension. Such obtained from the parents and children, also, the data were
information may have far reaching applied implications. As analyzed anonymously). Finally, the investigation was
reading comprehension required the orchestration of many conducted according to the principles expressed in the
subskills [38], and an interaction between reader and text, it is Declaration of Helsinki.
important to study the effects of text presentation beyond the Materials. To examine reading comprehension, we
reading speed and accuracy level. Thus while rate and developed a tool that included four age-appropriate texts,
accuracy are necessary for comprehension, they are not matched for level of difficulty and length. The texts were
sufficient. Factors that influence them may influence adapted from previous national reading assessment materials
comprehension in a different manner. and were 44-47 words long. We manipulated three dimensions
To summarize, creating less accessible perceptual between the texts: font size, line length, and spacing between
presentation of text, or disfluent text (smaller fonts, less lines. The dimensions of the baseline text—20 pt font size, 4.2
spacing) was found to have different effects on the reading inch line length, double line spacing—represented the text
speed and accuracy of skilled versus unskilled readers. In dimensions that are used for national reading assessment for
terms of size, larger font size enhanced reading speed and the second grade, and reflected the typical font size, line
accuracy of younger and dyslexic readers and showed no length, and line spacing used in textbooks for this grade. For

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 The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension

the other three texts, we manipulated presentation by

decreasing font size in one text by 20%; increasing line length
in another text by 20%; and decreasing line spacing by 20% in
the final text. The assignment of each specific text to one of the
four dimensions, as well as the order of text presentation, was
counterbalanced across participants. For ecological reasons,
texts were presented to children in a booklet. The design was
self paced, as to ensure children are reading in their natural
pace that is most comfortable for them.
After reading each text, students were asked to answer four
multiple choice reading comprehension questions that were
developed especially for the current study. Prior to conducting
the study, the texts and questions were given to 10 judges, all
with master’s degrees in literacy, to assess that they are
indeed age-appropriate. The reliability of the tool, as examined
Figure 1. Mean reading comprehension score by text
in a pilot study with 51 children, was high (Cronbach’s α = .
property for 2nd grade (Experiment 1). Error bars designate
756).
+1SEM.
Procedure. The consent of the parents, the children, and of
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074061.g001
the school was obtained before beginning the study. Children
were first tested individually in a quiet room at school to
determine reading and vocabulary levels. Next, there was a Table 1. Descriptive statistics for PPVT, Rapid Naming, and
group administration of the reading comprehension tool. Word Reading from Alef ad Taf for second and fifth grade
Children were told they would be asked to read several children (N = 45 & 45, respectively).
passages and answer some questions about them. They had
up to 30 minutes to complete the entire task.
Second Grade Children Fifth Grade children
Results Mean (SD) Min-Max Mean (SD) Min-Max
For each participant, we calculated an overall reading PPVT SS 93.7 (5.2) 85-130 93.33 (3.2) 83-124
comprehension score for each text by computing the proportion Word Reading SS 109 (5.1) 88-122 105 (6.9) 87-116
of reading comprehension questions answered correctly out of Naming Speed Raw 39 sec (8.6) 26-58 30.00sec (5.6) 18-42
four. Results are presented in Figure 1. The analysis yielded a doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074061.t001
significant effect of font size on reading comprehension:
second graders had higher comprehension scores on the Materials and Procedure. To examine reading
standard font-size text (.87) than the small font-size text (.79),
comprehension, we developed a tool that was equivalent to the
t(43) = 2.32, p< .05, Cohen’s d = .35. The analysis also yielded
one used in Experiment 1 but adapted for fifth graders by
a significant effect of line length: Second graders had higher
employing the following changes: (1) the four age-appropriate
comprehension scores on the standard font-size text than the
texts were adapted from previous national reading assessment
large line-length text (.74), t(40) = 3.35, p< .01, Cohen’s d = .
materials for the fifth grade and were 110-120 words long; (2)
54. Comparing reading comprehension between the standard
the dimensions of the baseline text represented the text
text and the small spacing text did not yield a significant effect,
dimensions that are used for national reading assessment for
t(43) = 1.00, ns, Cohen’s d = .153.
the fifth grade, and reflected the typical font size, line length,
and line spacing used in textbooks for this grade—13 pt font
Experiment 2: Fifth Grade
size, 4.6 inch line length, one and a half line spacing. Again,
The results of Experiment 1 support the prediction that for disfluency was created for the other three texts by decreasing
young children learning to read, increasing the perceptual the font size of one text by 20%, increasing the line length of
disfluency of text, by decreasing font size or increasing line another text by 20%, and decreasing line spacing by 20% for
length, impairs comprehension. Experiment 2 was designed to the final text. The reliability of the tool, as examined in a pilot
examine the hypothesis that the opposite pattern, i.e., study with 50fifth graders, was high (Cronbach’s α = .797). The
increased comprehension for more disfluent texts, would procedure was identical to the one used in Experiment 1.
emerge for older children in fifth grade.
Results
Method For each participant, we calculated an overall reading
Participants. Participants were 45 fifth graders (24 girls, comprehension score for each text by computing the proportion
mean age 10.5 years) drawn from the same schools as the of reading comprehension questions answered correctly out of
participants in Experiment 1. All children had reading and four. Results are presented in Figure 2. Results yielded a
verbal abilities in the average range, based on standardized significant effect of font size on reading comprehension: in
measures [39,40]. See Table 1. contrast to the effect found for second graders, fifth graders

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 The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension

had higher comprehension scores for the smaller font-size text

(.91) than the standard font-size text (.81), t(44) = -2.72, p< .01,
Cohen’s d = .43. No significant effects of line length or line
spacing were obtained, t(44) = .92, ns, Cohen’s d = .14 and
t(44) = -.33, ns, Cohen’s d = .02, respectively.
To further examine the opposite effects of font size obtained
for second graders in Experiment 1 and fifth graders in
Experiment 2, we pooled the data across the two experiments
and conducted a mixed-design analysis of variance, with font
size (small vs. standard) and grade (second vs. fifth) as within-
and between-participant factors, respectively. No main effects
of font size or class were obtained, both F’s < 1. Importantly,
the analysis yielded a significant 2-way interaction between
font-size and class, F(1, 87) = 12.74, MSE = .45, p< .001, ηp2
= .13. Thus, in fifth graders, comprehension benefited from
Figure 2. Mean reading comprehension score by text
decreasing font size, whereas in second graders,
property for 5th grade (Experiment 2). Error bars designate
comprehension was impaired by this manipulation. Equivalent
+1SEM.
analyses yielded only a marginally significant interaction for line
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074061.g002
length, F(1, 84) = 3.26, MSE = .47, p = .07, ηp2 = .04, and a
non-significant interaction for line spacing, F< 1.
as background knowledge, proficiency in decoding, spelling
General Discussion etc.
In fact, text presentation changes the way information is
Reading comprehension research has mainly focused on encoded and processed. This notion has been previously
differences between good and poor comprehenders, and on suggested for reading rate and accuracy of young children. In
the cognitive and linguistic factors that predict efficient the current research we suggest that similar effect exists for
extraction of meaning from text [38]. The current study higher level processing (i.e., reading comprehension), and also
represents a novel approach to research on reading for older children. Along similar lines with previous studies that
comprehension by suggesting that, (1) merely manipulating the have shown that decreasing font size impairs reading rate and
typographical aspects of text presentation can affect reading accuracy in young children, in this study decreasing font size
comprehension among children, and (2) children at different impaired comprehension. However, for older children, previous
stages in the development of reading respond differently to studies showed that decreasing font size did not affect their
these typographical manipulations. Specifically, the results of reading rate and accuracy [34,37], whereas in this study it
the current experiments suggest that manipulating presentation actually enhanced comprehension.
of text and making it disfluent has opposite effects on children In order to understand the mechanism that may underlie the
at different reading stages. Among young readers in second different effects on younger vs. older children we suggest a
grade, reading comprehension became more impaired when a distinction between two bases of reading-related fluency. The
text was made less fluent by decreasing font size or increasing first stems from differences in the reader component of the
line length, whereas in fifth grade, reading comprehension RAND model [14] and is the traditional reading fluency [41]: the
benefited from the increased disfluency brought on by rate, accuracy, and proficiency of reading. The second stems
decreased font size. Interestingly, line spacing did not have an from differences in the text component of the RAND model is
effect on both grades, indicating that perhaps it is not a what we have termed perceptual fluency, which is affected by
contextual cue that children rely on in retrieving information. be manipulations of perceptual features of text presentation.
In the following sections, we address two theoretical issues.
First, we suggest that current theoretical and applied models of Reader-Based Fluency Differences
reading comprehension should be expanded to include text The direction of causality between reading fluency and
presentation/perceptual fluency as a factor of influence. comprehension is currently a matter of some debate [41].
Second, we discuss the notion of "desirable difficulties" in There is evidence that reading fluency both contributes to and
learning [17,19] from a developmental perspective, is a product of comprehension [42]. These researchers thus
emphasizing its implications for reading instruction. advocated viewing comprehension and (reading) fluency as
having a reciprocal causal relationship, a view currently
The Effect of Manipulating Text Presentation on espoused by practitioners as well as reading researchers [43].
Reading Comprehension Traditionally, however, researchers have theorized that reading
The opposite substantial effects of text presentation on fluency primarily facilitates comprehension, in line with
reading comprehension for younger vs. older children have automaticity theory [5]. Thus, the more fluent a reader is, the
theoretical and educational implications. Theoretically, they more resources could be allocated for comprehension. The
suggest that the interaction between the reader and the text is assumption behind the automaticity theory is that memory can
not only content based, nor does it solely relate to factors such only cope with the demands needed for reading if important

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 The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension

components can be processed automatically [44]. It is believed However, measures that tap reading time, such as rapid
that the relationship between reading fluency and naming and timed word reading did not correlate with any of
comprehension depends, to some degree, on reading skill [45]. the reading comprehension text conditions indicating that slow
It has been found that reading fluency was less strongly and fast readers were similarly affected by the task. Future
correlated with reading comprehension among poor readers studies should also examine reaction times for reading text in
with an isolated reading fluency (speed) deficit than it was different fonts.
among more proficient readers [7]. That is for some poor slow
readers, spending more time may be an effective strategy. Developmental Perspective on Desirable Difficulties
Hence better readers are typically faster and more accurate. As noted in the introduction, numerous studies in cognitive
However, slow readers in some case could have adequate psychology have shown that manipulations that introduce
comprehension, while some struggling comprehenders are difficulties during learning often enhance learning, somewhat
typically slow, and laborious [46]. Many reading interventions in counterintuitively [17]. However, it is important to emphasize
fact have focused on reading acceleration as a means towards that not all difficulties are desirable [50]. As noted, “Many
enhancing comprehension [47,48]. difficulties are undesirable during instruction and forever after.
Desirable difficulties, versus the array of undesirable
Text-Based Fluency Differences difficulties, are desirable because they trigger encoding and
The current study postulates a supplementary view of the retrieval processes that support learning, comprehension, and
relationship between fluency and comprehension. We suggest remembering. If, however, the learner does not have the
that under certain conditions, manipulating text-based fluency background knowledge or skills to respond to them
(perceptual fluency), making text more or less easy to process, successfully, they become undesirable difficulties.” [19]. To
may actually, and counterintuitively, enhances comprehension, design instruction optimally, educators should therefore be able
at least for older, upper elementary school students. to choose the appropriate level of difficulty to support learning,
Thus, in the context of the RAND model of comprehension, rather than hinder it.
which includes three components, the reader, the text, and the The current study contributes to this common view of
activity, we suggest that the text component should address difficulties as desirable to learning by raising the need to
not only the text type, but also the typographical text consider developmental trends when determining the difficulty
presentation mode [14]. levels used during instruction. For example, French at his
In the current study, older readers who had mastered the colleagues, found that making fonts disfluent had greater
efficiency stage of reading benefited from a decrease in font effects on students with dyslexia than on typical adolescent
size that made the print less perceptually fluent. Presumably, readers [49] In the current study, increasing perceptual
the decreased perceptual fluency made the text more difficult disfluency by changing typographical features of the text from
to process, at least subjectively, leading them to engage more the standard children are accustomed to, enhanced
deeply in reading the text. Similar to previous studies that comprehension for older, skilled readers, but impaired
examined only rate and accuracy of sentence reading and not comprehension for young, unskilled readers. Clearly, the
comprehension, children in second grade, who had not yet standard text presentation format was difficult enough for the
reached efficiency, did not benefit from the manipulation of text younger children, such that added difficulty was detrimental to
or the decrease in fluency [40]. This may have caused them to them. Thus, to promote learning, specific instruction conditions
read slower, thus impacting their memory for what they read should be carefully examined in light of the students’ skill level,
[49]. However the older children, who naturally were faster, and educators should keep in mind that the optimal level of
benefited from the added difficulty of processing smaller text. difficulty to support learning is constantly changing as children
Findings from the current study suggests that only after lower develop their learning skills.
level skills have been mastered, such that there is indeed a
relationship between reading fluency and comprehension, does Future Directions and Concluding Comments
perceptual disfluency become an effective mean for reaching Our results provide an initial, unique exploration of the effect
deeper processing (improved comprehension). In younger of manipulating text features and on reading comprehension,
children, who are still developing the concurrent sub-skills though more research is needed to achieve a more
involved in reading (decoding, speed, orthography, etc.), the comprehensive understanding of this process. While better
increase in cognitive load created by disfluent text and the comprehenders are often more fluent as readers, when looking
mental effort required for comprehension do not result in better at the text component, making the text (as opposed to the
performance. Interestingly, the extra spacing effect that was reader) less fluent may be more beneficial for instruction of
found to aid dyslexic readers, did not aid the young children in older readers. In this study, in order to ensure ecological
this study. Similar to adults For instance, reading speed in validity we did not control for reading time. Future studies
skilled adult readers is slowed when letter spacing is doubled should examine whether enhanced comprehension is due to
[3]. prolonged reading in any of the conditions. However, reading
Since we did not time the children, as this was a silent time might not have played a role in the findings, as previous
reading task, we do not know if this was due to the prolonged studies indicate that smaller font sizes did not affect the
time they spent on the task, or their altered strategies in reading speed of older children [29]. To better understand our
interacting with the text that changed their reading scores. results, future studies may also directly examine how readers

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 The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension

monitor their comprehension and learning of text while reading, within. This is especially important today, when many texts are
and how disfluency affects such monitoring by, for example, read using electronic devices and font size can be easily
eliciting online judgments of learning. In addition, it is important manipulated.
that future research examine not only the effect of perceptual
fluency on online processing of text, but also its effect on Author Contributions
delayed retention of the information read. Finally, it would be
interesting to examine if any of the conditions has an effect of Conceived and designed the experiments: TK. Performed the
motivation. experiments: SH. Analyzed the data: VH. Contributed reagents/
In conclusion, indeed one should not judge a book by its materials/analysis tools: VH. Wrote the manuscript: TK VH SH.
cover, but one should pay attention to how the text is presented

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