Age-of-acquisition effects in semantic processing tasks.
In two experiments, we examined whether word age-of-acquisition (AoA) is a reliable predictor of processing times in semantic tasks. In the first task, participants were asked to say the first associate that came to mind when they saw a stimulus word; the second task involved a semantic categorisation between words with a definable meaning and first names. In both tasks, there were significantly faster responses to earlier-acquired than to later-acquired words. On the basis of these results, we argue that age-of-acquisition effects do not originate solely from the speech output system, but from the semantic system as well.
Brysbaert
M
M
Department of Experimental Psychology, Universiteit Gent, Belgium. marc.brysbaert@rug.ac.be
Van Wijnendaele
I
I
De Deyne
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics; D014936:Word Association Tests