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This paper reports two experiments concerning the effects of word age-of-acquisition on word naming speed and auditory recognition of words presented at a low volume. The first experiment found significant facilitating effects of word age-of-acquisition in word naming even when word length, frequency and familiarity were taken into account. The second experiment found no evidence of age-of-acquisition effects in auditory word recognition. The results are interpreted as supporting the view that the age-of-acquisition variable mainly affects word production and has little effect on word recognition processes.

This paper reports two experiments concerning the effects of word age-of-acquisition and other word attributes on visual recognition thresholds. The results indicated that word length and frequency were the major determinants of the exposure durations required for correct' recognition of visually presented words. Apparent age-of-acquisition effects were redundant on length and frequency.

A key method in current research on thinking is to have subjects think aloud as they work on some task. Considerable individual differences usually emerge in the quantity and quality of thinking-aloud records. This article reports an experimental sudy of such individual differences. Subjects took Cattell’s 16-PF personality test, a self-relevation scale, and a test of verbal fluency. The 35 subjects then attempted three 8-puzzle tasks under thinking-aloud instructions. The resulting thinking-aloud records (protocols) were scored in terms of length, number of words per puzzle move, number of goal references, and number of goal references per move. The different protocol measures intercorrelated highly in each problem. Furthermore, each of the protocol measures correlated over different puzzles; that is, someone who produced a long protocol on one problem tended to produce a long protocol on other problems. However, none of the protocol measures correlated with any of the personality scores or with the verbal fluency measure. It is concluded that there is consistency within individuals in protocol quantity and completeness, and that this tendency merits further investigation.

Previous reports of age-of-acquisition effects have been theoretically ambiguous since, in any particular individual, word age-of-acquisition is perfectly correlated with the length of time that a word has been known. The study reported in this article attempted to disentangle effects of word age-of-acquisition and length of word residence time in lexical memory. To this end, words varying in recency-of-introduction to British English were presented in a word-naming task to 46 native speakers whose ages ranged from 20 to 58 years. Using subjects’ ratings of the words on age-of-acquisition, it was possible to assess word residence times and to compare the effects on naming speeds of age-of-acquisition and residence times. Regression analyses indicated that age-of-acquisition was a more important factor than residence time in the word-naming task.

Abstract: This paper reviews research concerned with word age-of-acquisition (AOA) effects in adult word recognition and production. Methodological issues, including the use of multiple regression techniques, are considered first. The pattern of substantive results is presented and is interpreted as indicating that AOA effects are most marked in word production as against word recognition. Possible theoretical interpretations are discussed and future research possibilities are outlined.