Modality effects and the development of the word length effect in children.

Full Abstract

Two experiments investigated the development of the word length effect in children aged 4 to 10 years, comparing auditory and visual stimuli. The question addressed was whether word length effects emerged earlier with auditory presentation or visual presentation, or whether they emerged at the same age regardless of presentation modality. Results provided evidence that word length effects emerge earlier with visual than auditory presentation. The implication of our results is that with visual presentation, 4-year-olds engage in some form of verbalization strategy that involves obtaining phonological representations of picture names and mapping them on to articulatory output plans. This strategy is clearly verbal in nature, but is not necessarily characterised as cumulative verbal rehearsal.

Author information

Author/s: Henry, L A (LA); Turner, J E (JE); Smith, P T (PT); Leather, C (C);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K. spjtlah(-atsign-)iop.kcl.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Memory (Hove, England) (Memory), published in ENGLAND. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2000-Jan; vol 8 (issue 1) : pp 1-17

Dates: Created 2000/06/08; Completed 2000/06/08; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 10820584, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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