scholarly journals The hunt for the Age of Acquisition effect: It’s in the links!

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Catling ◽  
Mahmoud Medhat Elsherif
Keyword(s):  
Low Frequency ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Verification Task ◽  
Arbitrary Mapping ◽  
The Third ◽  
Mapping Hypothesis ◽  
Naming Latencies

The Age of Acquisition (AoA) effect is such that words acquired early in life are processed more quickly than later-acquired words. One explanation for the AoA effects is the arbitrary mapping hypothesis (Ellis & Lambon-Ralph, 2000), stating that the AoA effects are more likely to occur in items that have an arbitrary, rather than a systematic, nature between input and output. Previous behavioural findings have shown that the AoA effects are larger in pictorial than word items. However, no behavioural studies have attempted to directly assess the AoA effects in relation to the connections between representations. In the first two experiments, 48 participants completed a word-picture verification task (Experiments 1A and 2A), together with a spoken (Experiment 1B) or written (Experiment 2B) picture naming task. In the third and fourth experiments, 48 participants complete a picture-word verification task (Experiments 3A and 4A), together with a spoken (Experiment 3B) or written (Experiment 4B) word naming task. For each pair of experiments the subtraction of the naming latencies from the verification tasks for each item per participant was calculated (Experiments 1-4C; e.g. Santiago, Mackay, Palma & Rho, 2000). Results showed that early-acquired items were responded to more quickly than late-acquired ones for all experiments, except for Experiment 3B (spoken word naming) where the AoA effect was shown for only low-frequency words. In addition, the subtraction results for pictorial stimuli demonstrated strong AoA effects. This strengthens the case for the AM hypothesis, also suggesting the AoA effect resides in the connections between representations.

scholarly journals Semantic Effects in Word Naming: Evidence from English and Japanese Kanji

2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoki Shibahara ◽  
Marco Zorzi ◽  
Martin P. Hill ◽  
Taeko Wydell ◽  
Brian Butterworth
Keyword(s):  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Confounding Variable ◽  
The Third ◽  
Semantic Variable

Three experiments investigated whether reading aloud is affected by a semantic variable, imageability. The first two experiments used English, and the third experiment used Japanese Kanji as a way of testing the generality of the findings across orthographies. The results replicated the earlier findings that readers were slower and more error prone in reading low-frequency exception words when they were low in imageability than when they were high in imageability (Strain, Patterson, & Seidenberg, 1995). This result held for both English and Kanji even when age of acquisition was taken into account as a possible confounding variable, and the imageability effect was stronger in Kanji compared to English.

Identity Primes Produce Facilitation in a Colour Naming Task

1994 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 957-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer S. Burt
Keyword(s):  
Low Frequency ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Initial Letter ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Associative Priming ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Attentional Effect ◽  
Letter Case ◽  
Identity Priming ◽  
Naming Latencies

Five experiments examined associative or identity priming effects in a colour-naming task with colour-neutral words. In Experiment 1, subjects instructed to read the prime silently showed no associative priming effect but a colour-naming facilitation with identity priming. In Experiment 2, the typical associative priming interference in colour naming was demonstrated in subjects recalling the prime word, but not in subjects reading the prime silently, whereas associative primes facilitated word naming regardless of the prime response requirement. The remaining studies investigated the colour-naming facilitation observed with identity primes. Experiment 3 showed no effects on the facilitation of colour naming from varying the letter case of a silently read prime. Experiment 4 showed facilitation when subjects recalled the prime, and a target frequency effect, with faster colour-naming latencies for high- and medium- than low-frequency targets. In Experiment 5, there was no facilitation for naming the colour of target words paired with non-word primes differing in their initial letter from the target. Taken together, the results suggest that the facilitation of colour naming following identical primes reflects faster target word recognition, whereas the associative priming interference reflects an attentional effect.

Age of acquisition effects in reading Chinese: Evidence in favour of the arbitrary mapping hypothesis

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bao Guo Chen ◽  
Hui Xia Zhou ◽  
Susan Dunlap ◽  
Charles A. Perfetti
Keyword(s):  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Arbitrary Mapping ◽  
Mapping Hypothesis ◽  
Reading Chinese

scholarly journals Reading and Lexicalization in Opaque and Transparent Orthographies: Word Naming and Word Learning in English and Spanish

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (10) ◽  
pp. 2105-2129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Kit Wan Kwok ◽  
Fernando Cuetos ◽  
Rrezarta Avdyli ◽  
Andrew W. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
English Word ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
Lexical Representations ◽  
Sublexical Processing ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Letter Sound ◽  
Naming Latencies

Do skilled readers of opaque and transparent orthographies make differential use of lexical and sublexical processes when converting words from print to sound? Two experiments are reported, which address that question, using effects of letter length on naming latencies as an index of the involvement of sublexical letter–sound conversion. Adult native speakers of English (Experiment 1) and Spanish (Experiment 2) read aloud four- and seven-letter high-frequency words, low-frequency words, and nonwords in their native language. The stimuli were interleaved and presented 10 times in a first testing session and 10 more times in a second session 28 days later. Effects of lexicality were observed in both languages, indicating the deployment of lexical representations in word naming. Naming latencies to both words and nonwords reduced across repetitions on Day 1, with those savings being retained to Day 28. Length effects were, however, greater for Spanish than English word naming. Reaction times to long and short nonwords converged with repeated presentations in both languages, but less in Spanish than in English. The results support the hypothesis that reading in opaque orthographies favours the rapid creation and use of lexical representations, while reading in transparent orthographies makes more use of a combination of lexical and sublexical processing.

scholarly journals Effects of age of acquisition and semantic transparency on reading characters in Chinese dyslexia

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-733
Author(s):  
SAM-PO LAW ◽  
OLIVIA YEUNG
Keyword(s):  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Semantic Transparency ◽  
Arbitrary Mapping ◽  
Post Hoc Analysis ◽  
Mapping Hypothesis ◽  
Semantic Errors ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Phonological Consistency

ABSTRACTThis study examined the effects of the age of acquisition (AOA) and semantic transparency on the reading aloud ability of a Chinese dyslexic individual, TWT, who relied on the semantic pathway to name characters. Both AOA and semantic transparency significantly predicted naming accuracy and distinguished the occurrence of correct responses and semantic errors from other errors. A post hoc analysis of subsets of items orthogonally varied in the AOA and semantic transparency revealed an interaction between the two variables. These findings converge on reports of AOA and semantic effects on deep dyslexic individuals reading alphabetic scripts. The case of TWT, together with recent results of another Chinese dyslexic individual who reads via the nonsemantic route and exhibits the effects of AOA and phonological consistency, supports the arbitrary mapping hypothesis, which states that the AOA effect resides in the connection between two levels of representation.

Naming the Snodgrass and Vanderwart Pictures: Effects of Age of Acquisition, Frequency, and Name Agreement

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 560-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Barry ◽  
Catriona M. Morrison ◽  
Andrew W. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Naming Speed ◽  
Object Naming ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Line Drawings ◽  
Name Agreement ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Object Familiarity ◽  
Naming Latencies

Independent measures of age of acquisition (AoA), name agreement, and rated object familiarity were obtained from groups of British subjects for all items in the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) picture set with single names. Word frequency measures, both written and spoken, were taken from the Celex database (Centre for Lexical Information, 1993). The line drawings were presented to a separate group of participants in an object naming task, and vocal naming latencies were recorded. A subset of 195 items was selected for analysis after excluding items with, for example, low name agreement. The major determinants of picture naming speed were the frequency of the name, the interaction between AoA and frequency, and name agreement. (The main effect of the AoA of the name and the effect of the rated image agreement of the picture were also significant on one-tailed tests.) Spoken name frequency affects object naming times mainly for items with later-acquired names.

Predictive Inference Activation

2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doriane Gras ◽  
Hubert Tardieu ◽  
Serge Nicolas
Keyword(s):  
Naming Task ◽  
Word Naming ◽  
Predictive Inference ◽  
Text Reading ◽  
Predictive Inferences

Predictive inferences are anticipations of what could happen next in the text we are reading. These inferences seem to be activated during reading, but a delay is necessary for their construction. To determine the length of this delay, we first used a classical word-naming task. In the second experiment, we used a Stroop-like task to verify that inference activation was not due to strategies applied during the naming task. The results show that predictive inferences are naturally activated during text reading, after approximately 1 s.

scholarly journals Priming effects in the recognition of simple and complex words and pseudowords

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-222
Author(s):  
Miguel Lázaro ◽  
Víctor Illera ◽  
Javier Sainz
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Orthographic Processing ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
The Third ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Intense Debate

AbstractWhether morphological processing of complex words occurs beyond orthographic processing is a matter of intense debate. In this study, morphological processing is examined by presenting complex words (brujería -> brujo –witchcraft -> witch), as well as simple (brujaña->brujo) and complex pseudowords (brujanza ->brujo), as primes in three masked lexical decision tasks. In the first experiment, the three experimental conditions facilitated word recognition in comparison to the control condition, but no differences emerged between them. Given the importance of the surface frequency effect observed, a second experiment was conducted. The results fully replicate those observed in the first one, but this time with low frequency targets. In the third experiment, vowels were removed from the stems of primes to reduce the orthographic overlap between primes and targets and, therefore, the influence of the embedded stem effect. The results show facilitative effects only for complex words. However, paired comparisons show no differences between experimental conditions. The overall results show the central role played by the processing of stems in visual word recognition and are explained in terms of current models of morphological processing.

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