Funnell Elaine, Hughes Diana, Woodcock Jayne
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2006 Feb;59(2):268-95. doi: 10.1080/02724980443000674.
This paper reports an investigation into the age of acquisition of object names and object knowledge in a cross-sectional study of 288 children aged between 3 years 7 months and 11 years 6 months, comprising equal numbers of boys and girls. The objects belonged to four categories: animals, fruit and vegetables, implements, and vehicles. They were presented in three image types: line drawings, black-and-white photographs, and coloured photographs. In the knowledge test, five probe questions were asked for each object given the spoken name. Results showed that line drawings were more difficult to name than either black-and-white photographs or coloured photographs, which did not differ. The boys significantly out-performed the girls at naming and knowing, both overall and specifically for the category of vehicles. Naming and knowledge increased steadily with age but while young children below about 6 years 6 months showed an advantage to naming, older children showed an advantage to knowing. Similarly, age-of-acquisition measures for each item revealed a significant shift in the relationship between naming and knowing at around 80 months. We argue that differences in learning experience lead younger and older children to associate object names with different types of information, and we suggest that this difference probably accounts for the age-of-acquisition effects reported in adult object naming.
本文报告了一项针对288名年龄在3岁7个月至11岁6个月之间儿童的横断面研究，该研究调查了物体名称和物体知识的习得年龄，其中男孩和女孩数量相等。这些物体分为四类：动物、水果和蔬菜、工具及交通工具。它们以三种图像类型呈现：线条画、黑白照片和彩色照片。在知识测试中，对于每个说出名称的物体，会问五个探测性问题。结果显示，线条画比黑白照片或彩色照片更难命名，而黑白照片和彩色照片之间没有差异。在命名和知识掌握方面，男孩总体上显著优于女孩，在交通工具类别上尤其如此。命名和知识随着年龄稳步增长，但在大约6岁6个月以下的幼儿中，命名方面有优势，而年龄较大的儿童在知识掌握方面有优势。同样，每个项目的习得年龄测量结果显示，在大约80个月时，命名和知识之间的关系发生了显著变化。我们认为，学习经历的差异导致年龄较小和较大的儿童将物体名称与不同类型的信息联系起来，并且我们认为这种差异可能解释了在成人物体命名中报告的习得年龄效应。
