Lexical Search Speed in Children and Adults.

Abstract The retrieval of words from lexical memory was investigated in kindergartners (Age 6), first-graders (Age 7), third-graders (Age 9), and adults. A lexical decision task with auditorily presented words and nonwords was used, with decision latency as the dependent variable. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the effects of word frequency, age of word acquisition, and number of word meanings. Results showed that word frequency contributed to decision latency for all age groups, age of word acquisition contributed to all groups but the third-grade subjects, and number of word meanings did not contribute for any age group. Results are discussed in relation to a model of the lexicon in children and adults. It is suggested that factors from the external linguistic community are internalized in the lexicon at an early age.

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