Mainz Nina, Shao Zeshu, Brysbaert Marc, Meyer Antje S
Psychology of Language Department, Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsNijmegen, Netherlands.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent UniversityGhent, Belgium.
Front Psychol. 2017 Jul 13;8:1164. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01164. eCollection 2017.
Vocabulary knowledge is central to a speaker's command of their language. In previous research, greater vocabulary knowledge has been associated with advantages in language processing. In this study, we examined the relationship between individual differences in vocabulary and language processing performance more closely by (i) using a battery of vocabulary tests instead of just one test, and (ii) testing not only university students (Experiment 1) but young adults from a broader range of educational backgrounds (Experiment 2). Five vocabulary tests were developed, including multiple-choice and open antonym and synonym tests and a definition test, and administered together with two established measures of vocabulary. Language processing performance was measured using a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, vocabulary and word frequency were found to predict word recognition speed while we did not observe an interaction between the effects. In Experiment 2, word recognition performance was predicted by word frequency and the interaction between word frequency and vocabulary, with high-vocabulary individuals showing smaller frequency effects. While overall the individual vocabulary tests were correlated and showed similar relationships with language processing as compared to a composite measure of all tests, they appeared to share less variance in Experiment 2 than in Experiment 1. Implications of our findings concerning the assessment of vocabulary size in individual differences studies and the investigation of individuals from more varied backgrounds are discussed.
词汇知识是说话者掌握其语言的核心。在以往的研究中，更丰富的词汇知识与语言处理方面的优势相关联。在本研究中，我们通过以下方式更深入地考察了词汇方面的个体差异与语言处理表现之间的关系：（i）使用一系列词汇测试而非单一测试；（ii）不仅测试大学生（实验1），还测试来自更广泛教育背景的年轻人（实验2）。我们开发了五项词汇测试，包括多项选择题、开放式反义词和同义词测试以及定义测试，并与两项既定的词汇测量方法一起进行测试。使用词汇判断任务来测量语言处理表现。在实验1中，发现词汇量和词频可预测单词识别速度，但我们未观察到两者效应之间的相互作用。在实验2中，单词识别表现由词频以及词频与词汇量之间的相互作用所预测，词汇量高的个体表现出较小的频率效应。虽然总体而言，各个词汇测试之间相互关联，并且与综合所有测试的指标相比，它们与语言处理的关系相似，但在实验2中，它们所共享的方差似乎比实验1中更少。我们讨论了研究结果对于个体差异研究中词汇量评估以及对来自更多样化背景个体进行调查的意义。
