Age-of-acquisition effects in picture naming: Are they structural and/or semantic in nature?

Abstract

Pictures having early acquired names are named faster than pictures having late acquired names. Age-of-acquisition (AoA) effects in picture naming are generally ascribed to lexical phonological representations, but alternative hypotheses state that they are located at the levels of semantic and/or object recognition. In Experiment 1, a semantic locus of AoA effects was tested. Participants performed both a picture naming task and a name–object verification task on the same items in two different sessions. AoA effects were reliable in picture naming latencies but not in name–object verification times. In Experiment 2, an object recognition task was used with the same items as employed in Experiment 1. Late acquired items were responded to faster than early acquired items. The findings do not support a semantic or a structural locus of AoA effects in picture naming.