AGE OF ACQUISITION NORMS FOR A LARGE SET OF OBJECT NAMES AND THEIR RELATION TO ADULT ESTIMATES AND OTHER VARIABLES

Studies of lexical processing have relied heavily on adult ratings of word learning age or age of acquisition, which have been shown to be s trongly predictive of processing speed. This study reports a set of ob jective norms derived in a large-scale study of British children's nam ing of 297 pictured objects (including 232 from the Snodgrass & Vander wart, 1980, set). In addition, data were obtained on measures of rated age of acquisition, rated frequency, imageability, object familiarity , picture-name agreement, and name agreement. We discuss the relations hip between the objective measure and adult ratings of word learning a ge. Objective measures should be used when available, but where not, o ur data suggest that adult ratings provide a reliable and valid measur e of real word learning age.