Age of acquisition and name agreement as predictors of mean response latencies in picture naming of French adults

We studied the influence of five variables on picture naming latencies in French adult subjects: frequency, age of acquisition and length of words, name agreement in oral naming, and visual complexity of pictures. 140 pictures were presented to 56 subjects with control of individual factors (age, educational level, gender). Naming latency was measured as the time from picture onset until keystroke corresponding to the begin of verbal production. The results of simple and multiple regression analyses show that only two variables make independent contributions to mean response latency: age of acquisition and name agreement. Such state of affairs confirms similar findings obtained with English speaking subjects.