The effects of age of acquisition on object perception

The age at which an item is acquired has been shown to affect naming latency of words, objects, and faces. The phonological completeness hypothesis situates the effects of age of acquisition (AoA) at speech output. Ellis and Lambon Ralph (2000) argue that the effects of age of acquisition result from a “mapping” between representations of orthography to phonology. However, neither “phonological completeness” nor “mapping” of phonological representations can account for the effects of age of acquisition on familiarity decisions to celebrities' faces and names (Moore & Valentine, 1999). This is because a familiarity decision requires a push button response rather than a verbal response. Moore and Valentine argued that exposure to new exemplars of information peg out the parameters of recognition for that type of information that will facilitate subsequent learning. Thus, the prediction is derived that age of acquisition will affect other perceptual classifications of any familiar stimulus class. We report two object classification experiments, where participants were required to decide whether the pictures of objects, presented at brief exposures, were real or not real. Age of acquisition and word frequency were manipulated in separate experiments. An advantage for early acquired objects was observed, which we argue, cannot be attributable to an effect of word frequency. We further argue, that a phonological locus alone cannot account for the advantage for early acquired objects in this classification task. The results are discussed in terms of additional multiple perceptual input loci as proposed by the Moore and Valentine (1999) set up of a specialised processing system hypothesis (SSPS).     

The varying effects of age of acquisition

There are a number of theories that suggest that age of acquisition (AoA) effects are not uniform across different tasks. Catling and Johnston (2006a) found greater AoA effects within an object-naming task than in a semantic classification task. They explained these findings by suggesting that AoA effects might accumulate according to how many levels of representation a task necessitates access to. Brysbaert and Ghyselinck (2006) explain the difference in AoA effects by proposing two distinct types of AoA (frequency dependent and frequency independent), the first accounted for by a connectionist-type mechanism and the latter situated at the interface between semantics and word production. Moreover, Moore, Smith-Spark, and Valentine (2004) and Holmes and Ellis (2006) have suggested that there are two loci of AoA effects: at the phonological level and somewhere within the perceptual level of representation. Again, this could account for the varying degrees of AoA effects. This study sets about testing these ideas by assessing the effect size of AoA across a series of different tasks that necessitate access to various levels of representation. Experiments 1-4 demonstrate significant effects of AoA in a novel picture-picture verification task, an object classification task, a picture verification task, and an object-naming task. Experiment 5 showed no effects of initial phoneme on the naming of the critical objects used within Experiments 1-4. The implication of the varying AoA effect sizes found within Experiments 1-4 in relation to explanations of AoA are discussed.     

The varying effects of age of acquisition

There are a number of theories that suggest that age of acquisition (AoA) effects are not uniform across different tasks. Catling and Johnston (2006a) found greater AoA effects within an object-naming task than in a semantic classification task. They explained these findings by suggesting that AoA effects might accumulate according to how many levels of representation a task necessitates access to. Brysbaert and Ghyselinck (2006) explain the difference in AoA effects by proposing two distinct types of AoA (frequency dependent and frequency independent), the first accounted for by a connectionist-type mechanism and the latter situated at the interface between semantics and word production. Moreover, Moore, Smith-Spark, and Valentine (2004) and Holmes and Ellis (2006) have suggested that there are two loci of AoA effects: at the phonological level and somewhere within the perceptual level of representation. Again, this could account for the varying degrees of AoA effects. This study sets about testing these ideas by assessing the effect size of AoA across a series of different tasks that necessitate access to various levels of representation. Experiments 1–4 demonstrate significant effects of AoA in a novel picture–picture verification task, an object classification task, a picture verification task, and an object-naming task. Experiment 5 showed no effects of initial phoneme on the naming of the critical objects used within Experiments 1–4. The implication of the varying AoA effect sizes found within Experiments 1–4 in relation to explanations of AoA are discussed.     

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

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 groupof 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.     

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。     

Objective age-of-acquisition (AoA) norms for a set of 230 object names in French: Relationships with psycholinguistic variables,the English data from Morrison et al. (1997), and naming latencies

Picture naming speed is strongly influenced by the age of acquisition (AoA) of words. Most studies of AoA have relied on adults' AoA ratings. However, objective AoA has been found to be a stronger determinant of picture naming latencies. Whereas objective AoA norms for words have been collected for some language communities, no objective AoA measures for words were previously available in French. The study provides objective AoA norms for a set of 230 object names following the procedures used by Morrison, Chappell, and Ellis (1997) to collect objective AoA measures in English. The relationships between objective AoA measures, rated AoA, other variables used in psycholinguistic experiments (name agreement, image agreement, conceptual familiarity, etc.), the English data collected by Morrison et al., and naming latencies are analysed and discussed. In addition, reanalyses of data on picture naming latencies (Bonin, Chalard, Méot, & Fayol, 2002) with the use of objective AoA norms are provided. Stepwise multiple analyses show that objective AoA is a stronger determinant of (spoken and written) naming latencies than rated AoA, whereas objective word frequency is not a reliable independent determinant and does not interact reliably with AoA in any of the analyses.     

习得年龄对客体和动作图画口语命名的不同影响：ERP研究

词汇习得年龄指人们最早理解单词意义时的年龄, 已有研究发现早习得词汇的阅读反应时间短于晚习得词汇, 研究者对于词汇习得年龄效应的认知机制存在争论。本研究运用事件相关电位技术, 考察了词汇习得年龄(早与晚)对客体图画和动作图画命名的影响。研究中采用图画命名任务, 要求被试在看到图画后迅速且准确地说出图画名称。结果发现早习得名词的命名快于晚习得名词, 而早习得动词的命名却慢于晚习得动词; 习得年龄对于名词产生的影响发生在图画呈现后的250~300 ms之间, 表现为早习得名词波幅小于晚习得名词, 而习得年龄对于动词产生的影响发生在图画呈现后的200~600 ms之间, 表现为早习得动词波幅大于晚习得动词。这表明名词产生中的习得年龄效应发生在词汇选择阶段, 支持了语义假设的观点; 动词产生过程中的习得年龄效应出现在多个加工阶段, 包括了词汇选择、音韵编码和语音编码阶段, 这与动词语义的多重性及其与动作相关的脑区激活有关, 支持了网络可塑性假说的观点。     

汉语图片命名中获得年龄的作用

不同语种的研究都发现获得年龄是影响图片命名和词汇命名的重要因素。该研究对汉语图片命名中获得年龄的作用进行了初步探讨。研究分为两部分,第一部分让20名大学生对187幅选自Snodgrass和Vanderwart图片集的线条画的名称的获得年龄进行了评定;第二部分以该187幅图片为刺激,30名大学生被试对图片进行命名反应。以命名反应时为因变量,采用多重回归分析,发现除了名称一致性和概念熟悉性,获得年龄是图片命名反应时的主要预测指标,并没有发现词频的效应。文章对此结果进行了讨论。     

Age of acquisition effects in the semantic processing of pictures

In two experiments, we investigated the role of age of acquisition (AoA) in the categorizing of objects in semantic tasks that do not require access to the object names. In both a found inside or outside the house (Experiment 1A) and a smaller or larger than a loaf of bread (Experiment 2A) classification task, objects with earlier-acquired names were categorized more quickly than those with later-acquired names. Experiments 1B and 2B also showed AoA effects on object-naming times for the same pictures. We conclude that AoA operates within the identification process in a fashion not simply restricted to name retrieval. These effects may be better explained in terms of the connectionist model proposed by Ellis and Lambon Ralph (2000) or by accounts that locate AoA within the semantic system (e.g., Brysbaert, Van Wijnendaele, & De Deyne, 2000; van Loon-Vervoorn, 1989).     

Are age-of-acquisition effects on object naming due simply to differences in object recognition? Comments on Levelt (2002)

Levelt (2002) argued that apparent effects of word frequency and age of acquisition (AoA) reported in recent picture naming studies might actually be confounded effects operating at the level of object recognition, rather than relevant to theories of lexical retrieval. In order to investigate this issue, AoA effects were examined in an object recognition memory task (Experiments 1 and 2) and a word-picture verification task (Experiment 3) and compared with those found in naming tasks using the same pictures. Contrary to Levelt's concerns, the results of the three experiments show that the AoA effect on picture naming has a lexical origin and does not simply result from a possible confound of object identification times.     

Age of acquisition persists as the main factor in picture naming when cumulative word frequency and frequency trajectory are controlled

The aim of this study was to address the effect of objective age of acquisition (AoA) on picture-naming latencies when different measures of frequency (cumulative and adult word frequency) and frequency trajectory are taken into account. A total of 80 Spanish participants named a set of 178 pictures. Several multiple regression analyses assessed the influence of AoA, word frequency, frequency trajectory, object familiarity, name agreement, image agreement, image variability, name length, and orthographic neighbourhood density on naming times. The results revealed that AoA is the main predictor of picture-naming times. Cumulative frequency and adult word frequency (written or spoken) appeared as important factors in picture naming, but frequency trajectory and object familiarity did not. Other significant variables were image agreement, image variability, and neighbourhood density. These results (a) provide additional evidence of the predictive power of AoA in naming times independent of word-frequency and (b) suggest that image variability and neighbourhood density should also be taken into account in models of lexical production.     

Age of acquisition persists as the main factor in picture naming when cumulative word frequency and frequency trajectory are controlled

The aim of this study was to address the effect of objective age of acquisition (AoA) on picture-naming latencies when different measures of frequency (cumulative and adult word frequency) and frequency trajectory are taken into account. A total of 80 Spanish participants named a set of 178 pictures. Several multiple regression analyses assessed the influence of AoA, word frequency, frequency trajectory, object familiarity, name agreement, image agreement, image variability, name length, and orthographic neighbourhood density on naming times. The results revealed that AoA is the main predictor of picture-naming times. Cumulative frequency and adult word frequency (written or spoken) appeared as important factors in picture naming, but frequency trajectory and object familiarity did not. Other significant variables were image agreement, image variability, and neighbourhood density. These results (a) provide additional evidence of the predictive power of AoA in naming times independent of word-frequency and (b) suggest that image variability and neighbourhood density should also be taken into account in models of lexical production.     

The effects of familiarity and practice on naming pictures of objects

Ss were given a paired-associate learning task, using nonsense shapes as stimuli and object names which varied in Thorndike-Lorge frequency as responses. Between each block of learning trials, Ss named the nonsense shapes and a set of line drawings of objects. While naming latencies for the shapes were unaffected by name frequency, there was an effect of frequency on naming a control set of pictures of objects. The frequency effect for the pictures decreased significantly with practice. When the Ss were asked to name pictures of the objects having the names previously learned for the nonsense shapes, an effect of frequency appeared, the size of the effect being the same as that found for the control pictures after practice. The frequency effect disappeared when the shapes were reintroduced.     

Effect of surface characteristics and style of production on naming and verification of pictorial stimuli.

Theories of object recognition that are based purely on part decomposition do not take into account the role of textural, shading, and color information, nor do they differentiate between stylistic factors in the preparation of line-drawn pictorial stimuli. To investigate these factors, naming and verification experiments were performed using line drawings, monochrome photographs, and color photographs of common objects. For line drawings, it was shown that line width, exposure, and contrast affected naming latency, which increased for lines of narrow width and extremes of exposure. Naming latencies were compared for objects drawn by a professional artist, with varying degrees of surface detail, and objects produced by a computer-aided design (CAD) system, with no surface detail. The mean naming latencies for the artist set were faster than for the CAD set, though not significantly, with a significant degree of object correlation being observed. However, in certain cases there were significant differences between objects. These were investigated in a further experiment in which subsets with common properties of present or absent surface detail were selected from the artist-drawn stimuli. It was found that the presence of surface features resulted in lower response latencies even for those objects that intuitively could be recognized by parts alone. The time to name photographic and line-drawn stimuli was compared, and a progressive decrease in naming latency from line to monochrome to color stimuli was observed. In a verification task, no significant advantage for color or monochrome photographs over line drawings was found, either when comparing stimuli of equivalent or of different mode. However, there was a tendency for the comparison of different modes to take longer than the comparison of same modes. The results are discussed in terms of theories of human visual processing and cognitive and computational models of object recognition.     

Psycholinguistic norms and face naming times for photographs of celebrities in French

A set of 105 photographs of celebrities has been standardized in French on distinctiveness, proper name agreement, face agreement, age of acquisition (AoA), and subjective frequency. Statistics on the collected variables for photographs are provided. The relationships between these variables have been analyzed. Face naming latencies have also been collected for the photographs of celebrities, and several multiple regression analyses have been carried out on naming latencies and percentages of tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomena. Themain determinants of naming speed included AoA, face agreement, and name agreement. In addition, AoA, together with distinctiveness and face agreement, reliably predicted the percentages of TOTs. The norms, photographs of the celebrities, and spoken naming latencies corresponding to the celebrities are available on the Internet at norms.celebrities.googlepages.com and should be of great use to researchers interested in the processing of famous people.     

Age of acquisition effects in vocabulary learning

Two experiments examined whether the age of acquisition (AoA) of a concept influences the speed at which native English speakers are able to name pictures using a newly acquired second language (L2) vocabulary. In Experiment 1, participants were taught L2 words associated with pictures. In Experiment 2 a second group of participants were taught the same words associated with L1 translations. Following training both groups performed a picture naming task in which they were asked to name pictures using the newly acquired words. Significant AoA effects were observed only in Experiment 1, in that participants were faster at naming pictures representing early acquired relative to late acquired concepts. The results suggest that the AoA of a concept can exert influence over processing which is independent of the AoA of the word form. The results also indicate that different training methods may lead to qualitative differences in the nature of the links formed between words and concepts during the earliest stages of second language learning.     

汉语词汇习得的年龄效应：语义假设的证据

通过三个实验考察了词汇加工中的习得年龄效应。实验一对比了汉字命名和图片命名中词汇习得的年龄效应,发现图片命名中存在着较大的词汇习得的年龄效应,汉字命名中没有出现这种效应。实验二和实验三分别采用语义范畴判断任务和图片语义分类任务,两个实验均发现了词汇习得的年龄效应。实验结果说明,词汇习得的年龄效应至少部分来源于语义加工的层次,结果支持了语义假设的观点     

Speech planning during multiple-object naming: Effects of ageing

Two experiments were conducted with younger and older speakers. In Experiment 1, participants named single objects that were intact or visually degraded, while hearing distractor words that were phonologically related or unrelated to the object name. In both younger and older participants naming latencies were shorter for intact than for degraded objects and shorter when related than when unrelated distractors were presented. In Experiment 2, the single objects were replaced by object triplets, with the distractors being phonologically related to the first object's name. Naming latencies and gaze durations for the first object showed degradation and relatedness effects that were similar to those in single-object naming. Older participants were slower than younger participants when naming single objects and slower and less fluent on the second but not the first object when naming object triplets. The results of these experiments indicate that both younger and older speakers plan object names sequentially, but that older speakers use this planning strategy less efficiently.     

Age of acquisition and repetition priming effects on picture naming of children who do and do not stutter

The effects of age of acquisition and repetition priming on picture naming latencies and errors were studied in 22 children who stutter (CWS) and 22 children who do not stutter (CWNS) between the ages of 3;1 and 5;7. Children participated in a computerized picture naming task where they named pictures of both early and late acquired (AoA) words in two consecutive stages. Findings revealed that all children's picture naming latencies and errors were reduced following repetition priming and in response to early AoA words relative to late AoA words. AoA and repetition priming effects were similar for children in both talker groups, with one exception. Namely, CWS benefitted significantly more, in terms of error reduction, than CWNS from repetition priming for late AoA words. In addition, CWNS exhibited a significant, positive association between linguistic speed and measures of vocabulary, but CWS did not. These findings were taken to suggest that the (a) semantic-phonological connections of CWS may not be as strong as those of CWNS, and (b) existing lexical measures may not be sensitive enough to differentiate CWS from CWNS in lexically related aspects of language production. Educational objectives: After reading this article, the learner will be able to: (a) describe the effects of repetition priming and age of word acquisition in speech production; (b) summarize the performance similarities and differences of children who stutter and children who do not stutter on a computerized picture naming task; and (c) compare the results of the present study with previous work in this area.