Abstract
This study is concerned with recent claims that subjective measures of word frequency are more suitable than are standard word frequency counts as indices of actual frequency of word encounter. A multiple regression study is reported, which shows that the major predictor of familiarity ratings is word learning age. Objective measures of spoken and written word frequency made independent contributions to the variance. It is concluded that rated familiarity is not an appropriate substitute for objective frequency measures. A multiple regression study of word naming latency is reported, and shows that rated word learning age is a better predictor of word naming latency than are spoken word frequency, written word frequency, rated familiarity, and other variables. Possible theoretical explanations for age-of-acquisition effects are discussed and it is concluded that early-learned words have a more complete representation in a phonological output lexicon. This conclusion is related to relevant developmental literature.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Aitchison, J., &Straf, M. (1982). Lexical storage and retrieval: A developing skill? In A. Cutler (Ed.),Slips of the tongue and language production (pp. 197–241). Amsterdam: Mouton.
Balota, D. A., &Chumbley, J. I. (1984). Are lexical decisions a good measnre of lexical access? The role of word frequency in the neglected decision stageJournal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,10, 340–357
Balota, D. A., &Chumbley, J. I. (1985). The locus of word frequency effects in the pronunciation task: Lexical access and/or production?Journal of Memory & Lanugage,24, 89–106.
Brown, G. D. A. (1984). A frequency count of 190,000 words in theLondon-Lund Corpus of English Conversation.Journal of Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers,16, 502–532.
Carroll, J. B., &White, M. N. (1973). Word frequency and age of acquisition as determiners of picture-naming latency.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,25, 85–95.
Cutler, A. (1981). Making up materials is a confounded nuisance, or: Will we be able to run any psycholinguistic experiments at all in 1990?Cognition,10, 65–70.
Farwell, C. B. (1976).Some strategies in the early production of fricatives. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Linguistics Department.
Fay, D., &Cutler, A. (1977). Malapropisms and the structure of the mental lexicon.Linguistic Inquiry,8, 505–520.
Ferguson, C. A., &Farwell, C. B. (1975). Words and sounds in early language acquisition.Language,51, 431–439.
Galbraith, R. C., &Underwood, B. J. (1973). Perceived frequency of abstract and concrete words.Memory & Cognition,1, 56–69.
Gernsbacher, M. A. (1984). Resolving 20 years of inconsistent interactions betw~n lexical familiarity and orthography, concreteness, and polysemy.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,113, 256–281
Gilhooly, K. J. (1984). Word age-of-acquisition and residence time in lexical memory as factors m word naming.Current Psychological Research & Reviews,3, 24–31.
Gilhooly, K. J., &Gilhooly, M. L. M. (1979). Age-of-acquisition effects in lex~cal and episodic memory tasks.Memory & Cognition,7, 214–223.
Gilhooly, K. J., &Gilhooly, M. L. M. (1980). The validity of ageof-acquisition ratings.British Journal of Psychology,71, 105–110.
Gilhooly, K. J., &Logie, R. H. (1980). Age-of-acquisition, imagery, concreteness, fanfiliarity, and ambiguity measures for 1944 words.Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation,12, 395–427.
Gilhooly, K J., &Logie, R. H. (1981). Word age-of-acquisition, readmg latencics and auditory recognition.Current Psychological Research,1, 251–262.
Gilhooly, K. J., &Watson, F. L. (1981). Word age-of-acquisition effects: A review.Current Psychological Reviews,1, 269–286.
Gordon, B. (1985). Subjective frequency and the lexical decision latency function: Implications for mechanisms of lexical access.Journal of Memory & Language,24, 631–645.
Howis, D. (1954). On the interpretation of word frequency as a variable affecting speed of recognition.Journal of Experimental Psychology,48, 106–112.
Humphreys, G. W., Evett, L. J., &Taylor, D. E. (1982). Automat~ c phonological priming in visual word recognition.Memory & Cognition,10, 576–590.
Jakobson, R. (1968).Child language aphasia and phonological universals. The Hague: Mouton.
Kučera, H., &Francis, W. (1967).Computational analysis of presentday American English. Providence, RI: rown University Press.
Lachman, R., Shaffer, J. P., &Hennrikus, D. (1974). Language and cognition: Effects of stimulus codability, name-word frequency and age of acquisition on lexical reaction time.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,13, 613–625.
Lyons, A. W., Teer, P., &Rubenstein, H. (1978). Age-at-acquisition and word recognition.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research,7, 179–187.
Menn, L. (1983). Development of speaking skills. In B. Butterworth (Ed.),Language production 2. London: Academic Press.
Morton, J., &Smith, N. V. (1974). Some ideas concerning the acquisition of phonology. InCurrent problems in psycholinguistics (pp. 161–176). Paris: Editions du CRNS.
Norris, D. (1984). A computer-based programmable tachistoscope for nonprogrammers.Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers.16, 25–27.
Rubin, D. C (1976). Applying psychometric methods in linguistic research: Some recent advances,Linguistics,168, 63–66.
Rubin, D. C. (1980). 51 properties of 125 words: A unit analysis of verbal behaviorJournal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,19, 736–755.
Rubin, D. C. (1983). Associative asymmetry, avallabdity, and retrieval.Memory & Cognition,11, 83–92.
Smith, N. V. (1973).The acquisition of phonology: A case study Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Solso, R. L., &Juel, C. L. (1980). Positional frequency and versatility of bigrams for two- through nine-letter English words.Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation,12, 297–343.
Svartvik, J., &Quirk, R. (1980).A corpus of English conversation Lurid, Sweden: Gleerup.
Theios, J., &Muise, J. G. (1977). The word identification process in reading. In N. J. Castellan, D. B. Pisoni, & G. R. Potts (Eds.),Cognitive theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaurm.
Thorndike, E. L., &Lorge, I. (1944).The teacher’s word book of 30,000 words New York: Teachers College Press, Columbm University.
Tryk, H. E. (1968) Sublectwescalmgot word frequency.American Journal of Psychology,81, 170–177
Vihman, M. M. (1981). Phonology and the development of the lexicon. Evidence from children’s errors.Journal of Child Language,8, 239–264.
Watsom, F. L. (1985).Age of acquisition effects tn lexical processing. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Whaley, C. P. (1978). Word-nonword classification time.Journal of Verbal Learning& Verbal Behavior,17, 143–154.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The experiments reported in this paper were carded out at the University of Sussex.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brown, G.D.A., Watson, F.L. First in, first out: Word learning age and spoken word frequency as predictors of word familiarity and word naming latency. Memory & Cognition 15, 208–216 (1987). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197718
Received:
Accepted:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197718