Age-of-acquisition affects word naming in Italian only when stress is irregular.

In Italian, effects of age of acquisition (AoA) have been found in object naming, semantic categorization of words and lexical decision, but not in word naming (reading aloud). The lack of an AoA effect in Italian word naming is replicated in Experiment 1 which involved reading aloud two-syllable words which all have regular spelling-sound correspondences and regular stress patterns. Studies of English word naming have reported stronger effects of AoA for irregular or exception words than for words with regular, consistent spelling-sound correspondences. There are no grapheme-phoneme irregularities in Italian, but words containing three or more syllables can carry either regular stress on the penultimate syllable or irregular stress on the antepenultimate syllable. Experiment 2 found effects of AoA on reading three-syllable words for words with irregular stress. The results are interpreted in terms of the 'mapping hypothesis' of AoA, with effects arising as a result of a difficulty to generalize earlier-acquired patterns to irregular late-acquired words.

Publication type: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Wilson, Maximiliano
Ellis, Andrew W.
Burani, Cristina
Publisher: 
Martinus Nijhoff, Amsterdam , Paesi Bassi
Source: 
Acta psychologica 139 (2012): 417–424. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.012
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Wilson, Maximiliano; Ellis, Andrew W.; Burani, Cristina;/titolo:Age-of-acquisition affects word naming in Italian only when stress is irregular./doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.012/rivista:Acta psychologica/anno:2012/pagina_da:417/
Date: 
2012
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/222129
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.012
info:doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.012
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/acta-psychologica/
Language: 
Eng