Real age of acquisition effects in word naming and lexical decision.

Abstract

Age of acquisition (AoA) has been reported to be a predictor of the speed of reading words aloud (word naming) and lexical decision, with early-acquired words being responded to faster than later-acquired words in both tasks. All previous studies of AoA effects have, however, relied upon adult estimates of word learning age the validity of which it is easy to cast doubt upon. Using objective age of acquisition norms derived from children's naming data, this study shows that AoA effects do not depend upon the use of adult ratings. In addition to effects of real AoA, influences of word frequency and orthographic neighbourhood size were obtained in both word naming and lexical decision. Imageability affected lexical decision but not word naming, while the characteristics of the word's initial phoneme affected word naming but not lexical decision.