听觉条件下词汇获得年龄效应产生机制的初探

The Age of Acquisition Effect in Auditory Words

通过三个实验考察听觉词汇的获得年龄效应。实验1采用基于语音的词汇判断任务,在错误率上存在词汇获得年龄效应,即早期习得词汇的正确率高于晚期习得词汇;实验2、3分别采用基于字形和语义的词汇判断任务,在反应时上存在词汇获得年龄效应,即早期习得词汇的反应快于晚期习得词汇。结果支持任意映射假说的观点:⒈词汇获得年龄效应产生于音、形、义加工的多个方面;⒉映射程度高低是决定词汇获得年龄效应大小的重要因素。

Previous studies have found that early - acquired words processed more quickly or accurately than late - acquired words, which was defined as Age of Acquisition （AOA）. So far, four major theories focus on the processing mechanism of AOA： （ 1 ） the Pho- nological Completeness Hypothesis states that the phonology of early - acquired word is stored as a whole, while the phonology of late - acquired word is assumed to be represented in a more fragmented form. In this case, a processing cost is produced because the late - acquired word is more difficult to assemble for pronunciation; （2） the Semantic Hypothesis supposes that the late - acquired word is learned on the basis of the early - acquired word, and because of the repeatedly processing of early - acquired word meaning, they are processed faster and more accurately than late - acquired words; （3） the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis assumes that the AOA effect reflects the arbitrary nature of the mapping between the input （ e. g. , orthographic） and the output （ e. g. , phonological or semantic） rep- resentation form during the development of lexieal network. When the mapping between the input and the output is inconsistent, or arbitrary, the AOA effect will increase. While the mapping between the input and the output is highly consistent, the AOA effects will decrease; （4） the Cumulative Frequency Hypothesis states that if the frequency of a word＇s application is higher, then the word will be processed more quickly. And because we use the early - acquired word more frequently, our processing speed is faster for early - ac- quired words than for late - acquired words. Recently, there is growing evidence showing that the AOA effect has been found in the processes of orthography, phonology and se- mantic, which supports the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis. In factual life experience, words are learned by hearing more than by reading, and the age of acquisition may be earlier. In order to test the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis of the AOA effect in auditory words, three experiments were conducted to examine the locus of the age of acquisition effects in the processing of Chinese words. In Experiment 1, auditory words were divided into early group and late group, participants were required to judge whether the later presented visual character were pronounced the same as the earlier presented auditory word. The results showed that words acquired early were processed more accurately than words acquired later. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants were asked to judge whether the later presented visual character possessed similar orthography or relevant meaning to the earlier presented auditory word. In both of the two experiments, the reaction time of the early - acquired Chinese character turned out to be faster than that of the late - acquired one, which indicated the AOA effect. The study results supported the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis. On the one hand, the AOA effect was produced in the processes of orthography, phonology and semantic. On the other hand, the mapping level was one of the factors that determined the AOA effect.