Effect of perceptual load on semantic access by speech in children.
OBJECTIVE
To examine whether semantic access by speech requires attention in children.


METHODS
Children (N = 200) named pictures and ignored distractors on a cross-modal (distractors: auditory-no face) or multimodal (distractors: auditory-static face and audiovisual-dynamic face) picture word task. The cross-modal task had a low load, and the multimodal task had a high load (i.e., respectively naming pictures displayed on a blank screen vs. below the talker's face on his T-shirt). Semantic content of distractors was manipulated to be related vs. unrelated to the picture (e.g., picture "dog" with distractors "bear" vs. "cheese"). If irrelevant semantic content manipulation influences naming times on both tasks despite variations in loads, Lavie's (2005) perceptual load model proposes that semantic access is independent of capacity-limited attentional resources; if, however, irrelevant content influences naming only on the cross-modal task (low load), the perceptual load model proposes that semantic access is dependent on attentional resources exhausted by the higher load task.


RESULTS
Irrelevant semantic content affected performance for both tasks in 6- to 9-year-olds but only on the cross-modal task in 4- to 5-year-olds. The addition of visual speech did not influence results on the multimodal task.


CONCLUSIONS
Younger and older children differ in dependence on attentional resources for semantic access by speech.
University of Texas at Dallas, TX, USA. sjerger@utdallas.edu
Susan
S
Jerger
Markus F
MF
Damian
Candice
C
Mills
James
J
Bartlett
Nancy
N
Tye-Murray
Hervé
H
Abdi
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*