Is Familiarity the All-Purpose Reading Tool? The Case of the Missing-Letter Effect for Self-Generated Texts

Participants performed a letter detection task on a self-generated and on an unfamiliar text to address two questions: Will letter processing differ for self-generated and unfamiliar texts? Is the missing-letter effect immune from text familiarity? The 36 participants were asked to write an essay and then to read it along with an unfamiliar text written by another participant while searching for a target letter. Results revealed the usual missing-letter effect for both familiar and unfamiliar texts and an effect of familiarity with fewer omissions for familiar than for unfamiliar texts. Results are interpreted in light of the Attentional-Disengagement model of the missing-letter effect.