Is subjective word familiarity a meter of ambient language? A natural experimemt on effects of perceptual experience

The present study examined the sensitivity of a subjective familiarity meas ure to differences in word exposure within and between populations that dif fer dramatically in their perceptual experience. Descriptive measures of la nguage ability and subjective familiarity ratings for 450 words were collec ted from a group of college-educated adults with normal hearing and a group of college-educated deaf adults. The results demonstrate the sensitivity o f subjective familiarity ratings to both between- and within-group differen ces in word experience. Specifically, the deaf participants consistently ra ted words as less familiar than did hearing participants. Furthermore, item -level correlations within a participant group were higher than ones betwee n groups. Within groups, mean familiarity ratings were correlated with desc riptive measures of language ability. The results are discussed in relation to a simple sampling model of word experience and the language experience of the participant groups.