This study intends to test the Graded Salience Hypothesis, in order to investigate the factors involved in comprehension. This research considered pre-dictions derived from this hypothesis by evaluating the salience of idioms inthe Persian language. We intended to measure Reading Time (RTs), and thedesign comprised 2 Contexts (figurative, literal), 3 Types of Statements(familiar vs. unfamiliar vs. less familiar) and RTs (long, short, equal). Twotypes of contexts (figuratively inviting and literally inviting contexts) wereprepared. The software for this experiment was prepared for the purpose ofself-pacedreading experiments. Two pretests were performed. In the firstpretest, participants rated the expressions on a 1–7 familiarity scale. The sec-ond pretest was designed to confirm that contexts are equally supportive.Then, expressions were divided according to their familiarity (familiar,less-familiar, unfamiliar). Sentences were used so that, according to the secondpretest, their contexts would be equally supportive. Sentences were dis-played on a PC, controlled by Windows 7. Theself-pacedreading task wasapplied using the Moving Windows software. In the first part of the experi-ment, participants read each idiom in figuratively inviting contexts andtheir RTs were recorded. In the second part of the experiment, participantsread each idiom in literally inviting contexts and their RTs were recorded.Results of testing these idioms support the Graded Salience Hypothesis, butnot entirely. Such findings suggested that sometimes context affects theaccess of salient information and a semi serial process is witnessed. Resultsindicate that the salient meaning of both familiar and less familiar idioms isfigurative. In addition, salient meanings in the space following the unfamil-iar idiom and the first word of the next (spillover) sentence, were both, figu-rative and literal.

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