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Durham E-Theses The eects of age of acquisition in processing people's faces and names Moore, Viviene M. How to cite: Moore, Viviene M. (1998) The eects of age of acquisition in processing people's faces and names, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4836/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk THE EFFECTS OF AGE OF ACQUISITION m PROCESSING PEOPLE'S FACES AND NAMES. Viviene M. Moore The copyright of this thesis rests with the autlior. No quotation from it should be published without the written consent of the author and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Durham, 1998. i 3 JAN 1999 The effects of age of acquisition in processing people's faces and names. Viviene M. Moore Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Durham, 1998. ABSTRACT Word frequency and age of acquisition (AoA) influence word and object recognition and naming. High frequency and early acquired items are processed faster than low frequency and/or late acquired items. The high correlation between word frequency and AoA make these effects difficult to distinguish. However, this difficulty can be avoided by investigating the effects of AoA in the domain of recognising and naming famous faces and names. Face processing a suitable domain because the functional models of face processing were developed by analogy to word and object processing models. Nine experiments on the effects of AoA on face and name processing are reported. Experiment 1 investigated the influence of variables on naming famous faces. The variables were regressed on the speed and accuracy of face naming. Only familiarity and AoA significantly predicted successful naming. A factorial analysis and full replication revealed a consistent advantage for name production to early acquired celebrities' faces (Experiments 2 & 3). Furthermore this advantage was apparent from the first presentation (Experiment 4). Faster face and name recognition occured for early acquired than late acquired celebrities (Experiments 5 & 8). Early acquired names were read aloud faster than late acquired names (Experiment 7). Conversly semantic classifications were made faster to late acquired celebrities' faces (Experiment 6), but there was no effect in the same task to written names (Experiment 9). An effect of AoA for celebrities, whose names are acquired later in life than object names is problematic for the developmental account of AoA. Effects of AoA in recognition tasks are problematic for theorists who propose that speech output is tfie locus of AoA. A mechanism is proposed to account for the empirical findings. The data also presents a challenge for computer modelling to simulate the combined effects of AoA and cumulative frequency. Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. An introduction to functional models of word, objects and faces. 17 1.1. Introduction 17 1.2 The effects of word frequency on lexical processing 19 1.3 The effects of word frequency on picture naming 24 1.4 The effects of age of acquisition on lexical processing 27 1.5 The effects of age of acquisition picture naming 30 1.6 The relationship between word frequency and age of acquisition 33 1.7 Mechanisms of the effects of word frequency 36 1.8 Mechanisms of the effects of age of acquisition 37 1.8.i The completeness hypothesis 40 1.8 ii Cumulative frequency and residence time in memory 40 1.8 iii The acquisition of language 43 1.8 iv The acquisition order 44 1.9 The analogy between object, word and face recognition 47 1.9.i The Bruce and Young functional model of face processing 47 1.9.ii The Valentine, Brennen and Bredart model of face naming 52 1.10 Summary 56 1.11 The organisation of this thesis 57 Table of Contents CHAPTER 2. The variables affecting face naming 58 2.1 Introduction 58 2.2 Experiment 1 60 2.2.i Generation of the stimuli 60 2.2.ii Method 61 2.2.iii Results 66 2.2.iv Discussion 74 2.3 Statistical issues 75 2.3.i Multiple regression 75 2.3.ii The distribution of age of acquisition ratings 79 2.4 Methodological issues 80 2.4.i Measures of word frequency and age of acquisition 80 2.4.ii Four pilot studies 80 2.5 Interim summary 81 CHAPTER 3. The effect of age of acquisition in a factorial design 82 3.1 Introduction 82 3.2 Experiment 2: Factorial analysis of selected data 83 3.2.i. Method 83 3.2.ii Results ; 85 3.2.iii Discussion 85 Table of Contents 3.3 Experiment 3: Factorial replication 86 3.3.i. Method 86 3.3.ii Results 86 3.3.iii Discussion 88 3.4 Experiment 4: Repeated naming of faces 88 3.4.i Introduction 88 3.4.ii Method 89 3.4.iii Results 90 3.4.iv Discussion 95 3.5 Interim summary 97 CHAPTER 4. The effects of age of acquisition on face processing tasks not requiring a spoken response 98 4.1 Introduction 98 4.2 Experiment 5: Face familiarity decision task 99 4.2.i Introduction 99 4.2.ii Method 99 4.2.iii Results 101 4.2.iv Discussion 102 4.3 Experiment 6: Semantic classification to faces 103 4.3.i. Introduction 103 5 Table of Contents 4.3.ii Method 104 4.3.iii Results 105 4.3.iv Discussion 107 CHAPTER 5. Investigating the effects of age of acquisition on processing printed names 108 5.1 Introduction 108 5.2 Experiment?: Reading printed names 108 5.2.i Method 108 5.2.ii Results Ill 5.2.iii Discussion 112 5.3 Experiment 8: Familiarity decision to the printed names 112 5.3.i Introduction 112 5.3.ii. Method : 113 5.3.iii Results 113 5.3.iv. Discussion 114 5.4 Experiment 9: Semantic classification to printed names 115 5.4.i. Introduction 115 5.4.ii. Method 116 5.4.iii. Results 117 Table of Contents 5.4.iv. Discussion 118 5.5 General Discussion 119 CHAPTER 6. Summary, discussion and conclusions 121 6.1 Introduction 121 6.2 Summary of experimental results 121 6.3 Methodological issues 124 6.3.i Ratings of age of acquisition 125 6.3.ii Celebrities as stimuli 126 6.3.iii Recency of encounter 127 6.3.iv The type of classification task 127 6.3.V Statistical issues 128 6.3.vi The age of the participant population 132 6.4 The relationship between word, object & face recognition & naming 133 6.5 The locus of the effects of age of acquisition." 133 6.6 Modelling the effects of age of acquisition and cumulative frequency 136 6.7 The mechanisms involved in the effects of age of acquisition 137 6.8 A proposed mechanism for the order of acquisition 137 6.9 Conclusions 139 References 141 Appendices 155 Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES 2.1 Regression on naming speed data for analysis of Experiment 1 68 2.2 Regression on accuracy data for analysis of Experiment 1 72 3.1 Mean rating scores for early vs. late age of acquisition stimulus sets for factorial analysis of selected data from Experiment 1 83 3.2 Mean post hoc rating scores from Experiment 3 87 3.3 Mean post hoc rating scores from Experiment 4 95 4.1 Mean post hoc rating scores from Experiment 5 102 4.2 Mean post hoc rating scores from Experiment 6 106 5.1 The mean rating and attribute scores for stimulus sets 110 5.2 The initial pronunciation for first names 110 5.3 Mean post hoc rating scores from Experiment 7 112 5.4 Mean post hoc rating scores from Experiment 8 114 5.5 Mean a priori and post hoc rating scores from Experiment 9 117 6.1 Mean scores and significance levels taking participants & items as the random factor 131 8 Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 A Schematic Representation of the Logogen Model 20 1.2 A Schematic Representation of the Pictogen Model 25 1.3 A Schematic Representation of Face Recognition 48 1.4 A Functional Model of Face and Name Processing 54 2.1 A Venn Diagram Showing the Method of Calculating how the Proportion of Variance in the Data can be Attributed to the Independent Variables 70 3.1 Frequency Distribution for Age of Acquisition Ratings of Experimental Items 84 3.2. Mean Reaction Times for Naming Faces in Four Blocks 92 3.3 Mean Accuracy Scores for Naming in Four Blocks 93 Table of Contents LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 2.1 Name generation response sheet 155 Appendix 2.2 Names rating sheets 156 Appendix 2.3 Mean ratings, reaction time and accuracy of response for celebrities from Experiment 1 160 Appendix 2.4: Four Pilot Studies 162 Introduction 162 2.4.1 Factorial manipulation of age of acquisition & surname frequency.