Naming times for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures

This paper reports the results of two experiments. In the first, voice-key naming times were collected and in the second, keypress naming times were collected for 250 of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) pictures. The resulting naming times and correct naming rates were well predicted in multiple regression analyses by one or another measure of codability (name or concept agreement) and by age-of-acquisition ratings collected specifically for this study. Voice-key responses appeared to be somewhat more sensitive indicators of naming difficulty, although keypress responses did remarkably well. The Appendix presents the age-of-acquisition ratings, the trimmed vocal and keypress naming times, and the correct naming rates from the two experiments for the 250 pictures.     

Naming times for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures in Spanish

We present new Spanish norms for object familiarity and rated age of acquisition for 140 pictures taken from Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980), together with data on visual complexity, image agreement, name agreement, word length (in syllables and phonemes), and five measures of word frequency. The pictures were presented to a group of 64 Spanish subjects, and oral naming latencies were recorded. In a multiple regression analysis, age of acquisition, object familiarity, name agreement, word frequency, and word length made significant independent contributions to predicting naming latency.     

词汇获得年龄在物体和动作图画命名中的不同作用

本研究目的是考察词汇获得年龄(早与晚)这一因素对物体图画和动作图画命名是否产生了不同的影响。采用物体图画和动作图画命名任务,发现:(1)相比于物体图画命名,动作图画命名的反应时更长,表明动词的产生更为复杂。(2)在物体图画命名任务中,与晚获得词相比,早获得的词产生速度更快;相比而言,在动作图画命名中,晚获得词比早获得词的反应时更短,反应速度更快。基于分析和讨论,我们认为Ao A效应可能发生在图画命名过程中的词汇水平,而非概念水平或反应输出阶段。     

A Standardized Set of 380 Pictures for Lebanese Arabic: Norms for Name Agreement,Conceptual Familiarity,Imageability, and Subjective Frequency

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Research on language processing requires language-specific norms of pictorial and linguistic experimental stimuli across different psycholinguistic variables....     

Free-association norms for the Spanish names of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures.

The most frequent names in Spanish corresponding to a set of 247 pictures in the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) norms were used as stimuli in a discrete free-association task. A sample of 525 Spanish-speaking participants provided the first word that came to mind for each of the verbal stimuli. Responses were organized according to frequency of production in order to prepare word-association norms for the set of stimuli.     

Free-association norms for the Spanish names of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures

The most frequent names in Spanish corresponding to a set of 247 pictures in the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) norms were used as stimuli in a discrete free-association task. A sample of 525 Spanish-speaking participants provided the first word that came to mind for each of the verbal stimuli. Responses were organized according to frequency of production in order to prepare word-association norms for the set of stimuli.     

Visual-word recognition thresholds for screen-fragmented names of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures

The set of names corresponding to the pictures from Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) were screen fragmented by means of a series of procedures implemented in Microsoft QuickBasic on a Macintosh microcomputer. Words were screen fragmented by deleting blocks of pixels from their images rather than by deleting individual letters. The screen-fragmentation procedure is particularly useful for the present set of words, in which a large proportion of the names of the pictures are short (fewer than five letters). The screen-fragmentation procedure can produce any number of fragmentation levels. In the present implementation, eight levels of fragmented images were produced, to correspond to the eight levels available for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures.     

Perceptual identification thresholds for 150 fragmented pictures from the Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set

This paper reports perceptual identification thresholds for 150 pictures from the 1980 Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set. These pictures were fragmented and presented on the Apple Macintosh microcomputer in a picture-fragment completion task in which identification thresholds were obtained at three phases of learning: Train (initial presentation), New (initial presentation after training on a different set), and Old (repeated presentation of the Train set). Pictures were divided into five sets of two subsets of 15 pictures each, which served alternately as the Train and New sets. A total of 100 subjects participated in the task, with 10 subjects assigned to each subset. Individual thresholds for each picture at each phase of learning are presented, along with the fragmented pictures identified by 35% of the subjects across the Train and New learning phases. This set of fragmented pictures is provided for use in experiments in which a single level of fragmented image is presented for identification after a priming phase. Correlations between the Snodgrass and Vanderwart norms and identification thresholds at the three phases of learning are also reported.     

Icelandic norms for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) pictures: name and image agreement, familiarity, and age of acquisition

This paper presents Icelandic norms for the widely used pictorial stimuli of Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980). Norms are presented for name agreement, familiarity, imageability, rated and objective age-of-acquisition (AoA) of vocabulary, and word frequency. The ratings were collected from 103 adult participants while the objective AoA values were collected from 279 children, 2.5-11 years of age. The present norms are in many respects similar to those already collected for other language groups indicating that the stimuli will be useful for further psychological studies in Iceland. The rated AoA values show a high correlation with objective AoA (r = 0.718) thus confirming previous studies conducted with English speaking participants that rated AoA is a relatively valid measure of objective AoA. However, word frequency and familiarity are more closely correlated with rated AoA than with objective AoA indicating that these factors play some role in the ratings. Objective AoA norms are therefore to be preferred in studies of cognitive processes.     

Visual-word identification thresholds for the 260 fragmented words of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures in Spanish

Word difficulty varies from language to language; therefore, normative data of verbal stimuli cannot be imported directly from another language. We present mean identification thresholds for the 260 screen-fragmented words corresponding to the total set of Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) pictures. Individual words were fragmented in eight levels using Turbo Pascal, and the resulting program was implemented on a PC microcomputer. The words were presented individually to a group of 40 Spanish observers, using a controlled time procedure. An unspecific learning effect was found showing that performance improved due to practice with the task. Finally, of the 11 psycholinguistic variables that previous researchers have shown to affect word identification, only imagery accounted for a significant amount of variance in the threshold values.     

Thai Norms for Name,Image, and Category Agreement,Object Familiarity,Visual Complexity,Manipulability, and Age of Acquisition for 480 Color Photographic Objects

Normative databases containing psycholinguistic variables are commonly used to aid stimulus selection for investigations into language and other cognitive processes. Norms exist for many languages, but not for Thai. The aim of the present research, therefore, was to obtain Thai normative data for the BOSS, a set of 480 high resolution color photographic images of real objects (Brodeur et al. in PLoS ONE 5(5), 2010.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010773). Norms were provided by 584 Thai university students on eight dimensions: name agreement, object familiarity, visual complexity, category agreement, image agreement, two types of manipulability (graspability and mimeability), and age of acquisition. The results revealed comparatively similar levels of name agreement to Brodeur et al. especially when unfamiliar items were factored out. The pattern of intercorrelations among the Thai psycholinguistic norms was comparable to previous studies and our cross-linguistic correlations were robust for the same set of pictures in English and French. Conjointly, the findings extend the relevancy of the BOSS to Thailand, supporting this photographic resource for investigations of language and other cognitive processes in monolingual, multilingual, and brain-impaired populations.     

The Effects of Distractor Words on Naming Pictures at the Subordinate Level

Three experiments are reported in which participants are asked to name pictures at the subordinate level (e.g. POODLE) whilst ignoring a distractor word. In Experiment 1, the distractor words included the names of other exemplars from the same basic-level category (e.g. spaniel). Naming latencies were prolonged in this condition, relative to unrelated conditions. In Experiment 2, the distractor words included the correct basic level names (e.g. dog) and the names of related basic level objects (e.g. cat). Subordinate naming latencies were faster in these conditions than in unrelated conditions, suggesting that basic level names can be eliminated as competitors and that it can even be useful to have simultaneous activation of the correct basic level representation when retrieving subordinate names. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that when the names of subordinate objects from a related basic-level category (e.g. koala) are printed on objects, subordinate naming latencies are again delayed when compared with unrelated conditions. The results are discussed with reference to current models of object name retrieval.     

Naming Faces: The Effects of Facial Distinctiveness and Surname Frequency

The effects of the frequency of a surname in the population and of the distinctiveness of a face on the latency to name famous faces were explored. Distinctive faces were named more quickly than were typical faces. Celebrities with low-frequency surnames were named faster than celebrities with high-frequency surnames, but only if their faces were distinctive. Subsequent experiments showed that the effect of surname frequency could not be attributed to differences in the articulatory onsets of the surnames and was not present in a task that did not require a naming response. Experiments in which surnames were taught to previously unfamiliar faces showed that familiar surnames (e.g. the surnames of celebrities) were produced more rapidly than were unfamiliar surnames. If familiar surnames were taught, no effect of surname frequency was observed. It is concluded that lexical access to peoples' names is frequency sensitive—surnames shared by few individuals are accessed faster than are high-frequency surnames. However, when learning names to unfamiliar faces, familiar surnames (i.e. the surnames of people already known to the subject) are learned and accessed more quickly than unfamiliar surnames.     

Age Effects on Visual-Perceptual Processing and Confrontation Naming*

ABSTRACT

The impact of age-related changes in visual-perceptual processing on naming ability has not been reported. The present study investigated the effects of 6 levels of spatial frequency and 6 levels of contrast on accuracy and latency to name objects in 14 young and 13 older neurologically normal adults with intact lexical-semantic functioning. Spatial frequency and contrast manipulations were made independently. Consistent with the hypotheses, variations in these two visual parameters impact naming ability in young and older subjects differently. The results from the spatial frequency-manipulations revealed that, in general, young vs. older subjects are faster and more accurate to name. However, this age-related difference is dependent on the spatial frequency on the image; differences were only seen for images presented at low (e.g., 0.25–1 c/deg) or high (e.g., 8–16 c/deg) spatial frequencies. Contrary to predictions, the results from the contrast manipulations revealed that overall older vs. young adults are more accurate to name. Again, however, differences were only seen for images presented at the lower levels of contrast (i.e., 1.25%). Both age groups had shorter latencies on the second exposure of the contrast-manipulated images, but this possible advantage of exposure was not seen for spatial frequency. Category analyses conducted on the data from this study indicate that older vs. young adults exhibit a stronger nonliving-object advantage for naming spatial frequency-manipulated images. Moreover, the findings suggest that bottom-up visual-perceptual variables integrate with top-down category information in different ways. Potential implications on the aging and naming (and recognition) literature are discussed.     

The Effect of Age of Acquisition on Speed and Accuracy of Naming Famous Faces

Three experiments examined whether famous faces would be affected by the age at which knowledge of the face was first acquired (AoA). Using a multiple regression design, Experiment 1 showed that rated familiarity and AoAwere significant predictors of the time required to name pictures of celebrities' faces and the accuracy of producing their names. Experiment 2 replicated an effect of AoA using a factorial design in which other attributes of the celebrities were matched. In both Experiments 1 and 2, several ratings had been collected from participants before naming latency data were collected. Experiment 3 investigated the accuracy and latency of naming celebrities without any prior exposure to the stimuli. An advantage for naming early acquired celebrities was observed even on the first presentation. The participants named the same celebrities in three subsequent presentations of the stimuli. The effect of AoA was not significant on the fourth presentation. The implications of these results for models of face naming and directions for future research are discussed.     

Facilitation and Inhibition in the Superordinate and Instance Naming of Pictures

A new paradigm, analogous to that used to study inhibition in visual selection (Tipper, 1985), was employed to investigate the possible role of inhibition in selection among instance names (e.g.rabbit) and superordinate names (e.g.animal) for pictured objects. Participants named two sequentially presented pictures in pairs of three types: SAME (e.g., RABBIT-RABBIT), SAME CATEGORY (e.g., HORSE-RABBIT), and DIFFERENT (e.g., BALL-RABBIT). Naming instructions were varied so that participants either used superordinate (S) or instance (I) names for both pictures in a pair (S-S or I-I; Experiment 1) or switched predictably from one type of name to the other across the two pictures (S-I or I-S; Experiment 2). The patterns of naming reaction times revealed both facilitatory and inhibitory effects and provided preliminary support for the hypothesis that selection of a target name involves inhibition of a competing distractor name. Suggestions are given for extending this new paradigm to provide further evidence on the mechanisms underlying name selection.     

Determinants of naming latencies, object comprehension times, and new norms for the Russian standardized set of the colorized version of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures

We report object-naming and object recognition times collected from Russian native speakers for the colorized version of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 6:174–215, 1980) pictures (Rossion & Pourtois, Perception 33:217–236, 2004). New norms for image variability, body–object interaction [BOI], and subjective frequency collected in Russian, as well as new name agreement scores for the colorized pictures in French, are also reported. In both object-naming and object comprehension times, the name agreement, image agreement, and age-of-acquisition variables made significant independent contributions. Objective word frequency was reliable in object-naming latencies only. The variables of image variability, BOI, and subjective frequency were not significant in either object naming or object comprehension. Finally, imageability was reliable in both tasks. The new norms and object-naming and object recognition times are provided as supplemental materials.     

Pseudohomophone Naming and the Word Frequency Effect

An experiment by McCann and Besner (1987) suggested that non-words that are homophonic with a high-frequency word (e.g. “keap”) are named in the same amount of time as non-words that are homophonic with a low-frequency word (e.g. “fome”), despite such pseudohomophones being faster to name than non-pseudohomophones (e.g. “feap”, “yome”). Such a result is a challenge to any model of lexical processing that places the word-frequency effect at the stage when the word is being selected from amongst all lexical entries. McCann and Besner propose a complex alternative account where frequency effects arise at a later stage of processing, a stage that is not involved in the naming of pseudohomophones. The purpose of the present study is to look for a frequency effect in the naming of pseudohomophones, controlling for orthographic factors that McCann and Besner ignored. The first experiment, using a homophone decision task, establishes a set of items that produce a clear frequency effect. These items are then used in a naming experiment which also reveals a clear frequency effect for those subjects who make use of a lexical route when pronouncing pseudohomophones. It is concluded from this that the complex model developed by McCann and Besner is unnecessary.     

汉字词和图片命名与分类的比较

采用命名与分类任务考察了汉字词和图片命名与分类的特点,揭示义符在汉字词和图片命名与分类中的作用。结果表明,汉字词和图片的命名与分类与拼音文字的词和图片的命名和分类既有共性,又有差异。汉字词和图片的命名与分类具有不对称性：汉字词的命名快于汉字词的分类,图片的分类快于图片的命名。义符对于汉字词和图片的命名与分类的影响具有不对称性：对汉字词的加工有重要影响,对图片的加工无影响;对汉字词的分类有重要影响,对汉字词的命名无影响。被试对有标示类别的义符的词的分类显著快于对无标示类别的义符的词的分类,甚至快于对图片的分类。所以如此,与汉字词的结构特点有关。汉字形声字多用义符来标记事物的类别,提供了重要的类别信息。根据上述结果,作者构建了汉字词和图片认知加工的综合模型     

Bigram Frequency,Number of Syllables and Morphemes and Their Effects on Lexical Decision and Word Naming

There has been an increasing volume of evidence supporting the role of the syllable in word processing tasks. Recently it has also been shown that orthographic redundancy, related to the pattern of bigram frequencies, could not explain the syllable number effect on lexical decision times. This was demonstrated on a large sample of words taken from the British Lexicon Project. In this study we extend this research by examining both lexical decision and word naming times taken from the English Lexicon Project . There was a syllable number effect for both tasks in the expected direction, and this effect was independent of the presence of a bigram trough. The research also examined the role of other bigram related variables and the number of morphemes on lexical decision and word naming times. The number of morphemes had a significant effect on both word processing tasks, with words with more morphemes producing faster reaction times and also fewer errors. This pattern was reversed for nonword lexical decision times. The results are discussed in the light of recent developments in models of reading.