Age of acquisition, not word frequency affects object recognition: Evidence from the effects of visual degradation

Interactions between visual and semantic processing during object recognition revealed by modulatory effects of age of acquisition

“…2A and B), peaking at a mean of 95 ms. If AoA influenced the initial visual analysis of object features (Catling and Johnston, 2009;Catling et al, 2008), we might expect to see modulation of this evoked response by AoA, but we did not. Our results lend no support therefore to the idea that AoA affects the earliest stages of visual object identification.…”

“…Bar et al, 2006;Cardin et al, 2011;Twomey et al, 2011;Wyatte et al, 2012). This may facilitate more protracted perceptual and cognitive processing such as the processing involved in making complex semantic decisions about objects or naming object pictures with overlaid visual contours, tasks that can result in RTs in excess of 700 ms and which show influences of AoA Johnston, 2006, 2009;Catling et al, 2008;Johnston and Barry, 2005). On the other hand, given that the mean naming latencies in the present behavioral experiment were 500 ms for early-acquired objects and 594 ms for late-acquired objects, and given that those latencies include the time required to overcome the inertia of the articulators and for the spoken name to trigger the voice key, it seems likely that effects of AoA on object naming speed observed under normal conditions (Alario et al, 2005;Cuetos et al, 1999;Ellis and Morrison, 1998;Pérez, 2007) are mediated primarily by the modulation of semantic activity in anterior temporal cortex within the first 200-300 ms.…”

“…It has, however, been argued that AoA may have effects at multiple loci within the object and word processing systems, and that one of those loci may be the perceptual analysis of visual object features (Brysbaert and Ghyselinck, 2006;Hernandez and Li, 2007;Johnston and Barry, 2005;Navarette et al, 2013). For example, Catling et al (2008) found that overlaying irrelevant contours on object pictures increased the magnitude of the AoA effect on naming speed and argued that this reflected a perceptual component in the AoA effect on object recognition (see also Catling and Johnston, 2009).…”

“…On the basis of the Ellis et al (2006) findings we expected neuromagnetic activity in occipital cortex to be modulated by AoA (stronger to early-than late-acquired items). If the initial analysis of the visual features of objects is influenced by AoA (Catling and Johnston, 2009;Catling et al, 2008), then the initial evoked response to visual objects might be modulated by AoA.…”

Age-of-acquisition effects in delayed picture-naming tasks

“…Empirical research into AoA effects at the first two stages of processing has already been provided. The fact that AoA interacts with the visual degradation of the stimulus, but not with name frequency, suggests that part of the phenomenon arises at the perceptual level (Catling, Dent, & Williamson, 2008). Evidence for a semantic locus of the phenomenon has come, for instance, from semantic categorization tasks, in which participants were required to classify pictures on the basis of semantic information.…”