Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Subjective age-of-acquisition norms for 7,039 Spanish words

  • Published:
Behavior Research Methods Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Subjective estimations of age of acquisition (AoA) for a large pool of Spanish words were collected from college students in Spain. The average score for each word (based on 50 individual responses, on a scale from 1 to 11) was taken as an AoA indicator, and normative values for a total of 7,039 single words are provided as supplemental materials. Beyond its intrinsic value as a standalone corpus, the largest of its kind for Spanish, the value of the database is enhanced by the fact that it contains most of the words that are currently included in other normative studies, allowing for a more complete characterization of the lexical stimuli that are usually employed in studies with Spanish-speaking participants. The norms are available for downloading as supplemental materials with this article.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alameda, J. R., & Cuetos, F. (1995). Diccionario de frecuencias de las unidades lingüísticas del castellano. Oviedo: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Oviedo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Algarabel, S. (1996). Índices de interés psicolingüístico de 1917 palabras castellanas. Cognitiva, 8, 43–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alonso, M. A., Fernandez, A., & Díez, E. (2011). Oral frequency norms for 67,979 Spanish words. Behavior Research Methods, 43, 449–458. doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0062-3

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Álvarez, B., & Cuetos, F. (2007). Objective age of acquisition norms for a set of 328 words in Spanish. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 377–383. doi:10.3758/BF03193006

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barbarotto, R., Laiacona, M., & Capitani, E. (2005). Objective versus estimated age of word acquisition: A study on 202 Italian children. Behavior Research Methods, 37, 644–650. doi:10.3758/BF03192735

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barbón, A., & Cuetos, F. (2006). Efectos de la edad de adquisición en tareas de categorización semántica. Psicológica, 27, 207–223.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barca, L., Burani, C., & Arduino, L. S. (2002). Word naming times and psycholinguistic norms for Italian nouns. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 34, 424–434. doi:10.3758/BF03195471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barry, C., Morrison, M., & Ellis, A. (1997). Naming the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures: Effects of age of acquisition, frequency and name agreement. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50A, 560–585. doi:10.1080/783663595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonin, P., Barry, C., Méot, A., & Chalard, M. (2004). The influence of age of acquisition in word reading and other tasks: A never ending story? Journal of Memory and Language, 50, 456–476. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2004.02.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brysbaert, M., Lange, M., & Van Wijnendaele, I. (2000). Age-of-acquisition and frequency of occurrence in visual word recognition: Further evidence from the Dutch language. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 12, 65–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brysbaert, M., & New, B. (2009). Moving beyond Kučera and Francis: A critical evaluation of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 977–990. doi:10.3758/BRM.41.4.977

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cameirão, M. L., & Vicente, S. G. (2010). Age-of-acquisition norms for a set of 1,749 Portuguese words. Behavior Research Methods, 42, 474–480. doi:10.3758/BRM.42.2.474

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, J. B., & White, M. N. (1973a). Age of acquisition norms for 220 picturable nouns. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12, 563–576. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(73)80036-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, J. B., & White, M. N. (1973b). Word frequency and age of acquisition as determiners of picture naming latency. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 25, 85–95. doi:10.1080/14640747308400325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chalard, M., Bonin, P., Méot, A., Boyer, B., & Fayol, M. (2003). Objective age-of acquisition (AoA) norms for a set of 230 object names in French: Relationships with psycholinguistic variables, the English data from Morrison et al. (1997), and naming latencies. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 15, 209–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D. V. (1994). Guidelines, criteria, and rules of thumb for evaluating normed and standardized assessment instruments in psychology. Psychological Assessment, 6, 284–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cortese, M. J., & Khanna, M. M. (2008). Age of acquisition ratings for 3,000 monosyllabic words. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 791–794. doi:10.3758/BRM.40.3.791

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cuetos, F., Aguado, G., Izura, C., & Ellis, A. W. (2002). Aphasic naming in Spanish: Predictors and errors. Brain and Language, 82, 344–365.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cuetos, F., Ellis, A. W., & Alvarez, B. (1999). Naming times for the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures in Spanish. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 31, 650–658. doi:10.3758/BF03200741

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cuetos, F., González-Nosti, M., Barbón, A., & Brysbaert, M. (2011). SUBTLEX-ESP: Spanish word frequencies based on film subtitles. Psicológica, 32, 133–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuetos, F., Samartino, T., & Ellis, A. W. (2012). Age acquisition norms from elderly Spanish people: Characteristics and the prediction of word recognition performance in Alzheimer’s disease. Psicológica, 33, 59–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, R., Barbón, A., & Cuetos, F. (2013). Lexical and semantic age-of-acquisition effects on word naming in Spanish. Memory & Cognition, 41, 297–311. doi:10.3758/s13421-012-0263-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dimitropoulou, M., Duñabeitia, J. A., Blitsas, P., & Carreiras, M. (2009). A standardized set of 260 pictures for Modern Greek: Norms for name agreement, age of acquisition, and visual complexity. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 584–589. doi:10.3758/BRM.41.2.584

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duchon, A., Perea, M., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Martí, A., & Carreiras, M. (2013). EsPal: One-stop shopping for Spanish word properties. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 1246–1258.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, A. W. (2011). The acquisition, retention and loss of vocabulary in aphasia, dementia and other neuropsychological conditions. In M. Faust (Ed.), Handbook of the neuropsychology of language (Vol. 2, pp. 637–660). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez, A., Diez, E., Alonso, M. A., & Beato, M. S. (2004). Free-association norms for the Spanish names of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 577–584. doi:10.3758/BF03195604

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez, A., Díez, E., & Alonso, M. A. (2013). Normas de Asociación libre en castellano de la Universidad de Salamanca [Online database]. Available at www.usal.es/gimc/nalc

  • Ferrand, L., Bonin, P., Méot, A., Augustinova, M., New, B., Pallier, C., & Brysbaert, M. (2008). Age-of-acquisition and subjective frequency estimates for all generally known monosyllabic French words and their relation with other psycholinguistic variables. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 1049–1054. doi:10.3758/BRM.40.4.1049

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fiebach, C. J., Friederici, A. D., Müller, K., von Cramon, D. Y., & Hernandez, A. E. (2003). Distinct brain representations for early and late learned words. NeuroImage, 19, 1627–1637.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • González-Nosti, M., Barbón, A., Rodríguez-Ferreiro, J., & Cuetos, F. (2013). Effects of the psycholinguistic variables on the lexical decision task in Spanish: A study with 2,765 words. Behavior Research Methods. doi:10.3758/s13428-013-0383-5

  • Guasch, M., Boada, R., Ferré, P., & Sánchez-Casas, R. (2013). NIM: A Web-based Swiss army knife to select stimuli for psycholinguistic studies. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 765–771.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hallgren, K. A. (2012). Computing inter-rater reliability for observational data: An overview and tutorial. Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 8, 23–34.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsh, K. W., Morrison, C. M., Gaset, S., & Carnicer, E. (2003). Age of acquisition and speech production in L2. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6, 117–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Izura, C., Hernández-Muñoz, N., & Ellis, A. W. (2005). Category norms for 500 Spanish words in five semantic categories. Behavior Research Methods, 37, 385–397. doi:10.3758/BF03192708

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Izura, C., Pérez, M. A., Agallou, E., Wright, V. C., Marín, J., Stadthagen-González, & Ellis, A. W. (2011). Age/order of acquisition effects and the cumulative learning of foreign words: A word training study. Journal of Memory and Language, 64, 32–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, R. A., & Barry, C. (2006). Age of acquisition and lexical processing. Visual Cognition, 13, 789–845. doi:10.1080/13506280544000066

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorm, A. F. (1991). The validity of word age-of-acquisition ratings: A longitudinal study of a child’s word knowledge. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 437–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juhasz, B. J. (2005). Age of acquisition effects in word and picture identification. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 684–712. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.5.684

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kuperman, V., Stadthagen-Gonzalez, H., & Brysbaert, M. (2012). Age-of-acquisition ratings for 30,000 English words. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 978–990. doi:10.3758/s13428-012-0210-4

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y., Shu, H., & Li, P. (2007). Word naming and psycholinguistic norms: Chinese. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 192–198. doi:10.3758/BF03193147

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lotto, L., Surian, L., & Job, R. (2010). Objective age of acquisition for 223 Italian words: Norms and effects on picture naming speed. Behavior Research Methods, 42, 126–133. doi:10.3758/BRM.42.1.126

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Manoiloff, L., Artstein, M., Canavoso, M. B., Fernández, L., & Segui, J. (2010). Expanded norms for 400 experimental pictures in an Argentinean Spanish-speaking population. Behavior Research Methods, 42, 452–460. doi:10.3758/BRM.42.2.452

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Manzano, M., Piñeiro, A., & Pereira, M. (1997). Frecuencia de uso y edad de adquisición de palabras producidas por niños entre 11 y 49 meses de edad. Revista Cubana de Psicología, 14, 193–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mermillod, M., Bonin, P., Méot, A., Ferrand, L., & Paindavoine, M. (2012). Computational evidence that frequency trajectory theory does not oppose but emerges from age-of-acquisition theory. Cognitive Science, 36, 1499–1531.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Monaghan, P., & Ellis, A. W. (2010). Modeling reading development: Cumulative, incremental learning in a computational model of word naming. Journal of Memory and Language, 63, 506–525.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, V., Smith-Spark, J. H., & Valentine, T. (2004). The effects of age of acquisition on object recognition. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 16, 417–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, V., & Valentine, T. (1998). The effect of age of acquisition on speed and accuracy of naming famous faces. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 51A, 485–513.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moors, A., De Houwer, J., Hermans, D., Wanmaker, S., van Schie, K., Van Harmelen, A. L., & Brysbaert, M. (2013). Norms of valence, arousal, dominance, and age of acquisition for 4,300 Dutch words. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 169–177. doi:10.3758/s13428-012-0243-8

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, C. M., Chappell, T. D., & Ellis, A. W. (1997). Age of acquisition norms for a large set of object names and their relation to adult estimates and other variables. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50A, 528–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, C. M., & Ellis, A. W. (1995). Roles of word frequency and age of acquisition in word naming and lexical decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 116–133. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.21.1.116

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, C. M., & Ellis, A. W. (2000). Real age of acquisition effects in word naming and lexical decision. British Journal of Psychology, 91, 167–180.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pérez, M. A., & Navalón, C. (2005). Objective-AoA norms for 175 names in Spanish: Relationships with other psycholinguistic variables, estimated AoA, and data from other languages. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 17, 179–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piñeiro, A., & Manzano, M. (2000). A lexical database for Spanish-speaking children. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 32, 616–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redondo, J., Fraga, I., Padrón, I., & Comesaña, M. (2007). The Spanish adaptation of ANEW (Affective Norms for English Words). Behavior Research Methods, 39, 600–605. doi:10.3758/BF03193031

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schröder, A., Gemballa, T., Ruppin, S., & Wartenburger, I. (2012). German norms for semantic typicality, age of acquisition, and concept familiarity. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 380–394. doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0164-y

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sebastián, N., Martí, M. A., Carreiras, M. F., & Cuetos, F. (2000). LEXESP, léxico informatizado del español. Barcelona: Ediciones de la Universitat de Barcelona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverberg, S., & Samuel, A. G. (2004). The effect of age of second language acquisition on the representation and processing of second language words. Journal of Memory and Language, 51, 381–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snodgrass, J. G., & Vanderwart, M. (1980). A standardized set of 260 pictures: Norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 6, 174–215. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.6.2.174

    Google Scholar 

  • Stadthagen-Gonzalez, H., & Davis, C. J. (2006). The Bristol norms for age of acquisition, imageability, and familiarity. Behavior Research Methods, 38, 598–605. doi:10.3758/BF03193891

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. E., Valentine, T., & Ellis, A. W. (1998). Contrasting effects of age of acquisition and word frequency on auditory and visual lexical decision. Memory & Cognition, 26, 1282–1291. doi:10.3758/BF03201200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, M. A., Cuetos, F., Davies, R., & Burani, C. (2013). Revisiting age-of-acquisition effects in Spanish visual word recognition: The role of item imageability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 1842–1859.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Woollams, A. M., Cooper-Pye, E., Hodges, J. R., & Patterson, K. (2008). Anomia: A doubly typical signature of semantic dementia. Neuropsychologia, 46, 2503–2514. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.04.005

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zevin, J. D., & Seidenberg, M. S. (2002). Age of acquisition effects in word reading and other tasks. Journal of Memory and Language, 47, 1–29. doi:10.1006/jmla.2001.2834

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zevin, J. D., & Seidenberg, M. S. (2004). Age-of-acquisition effects in reading aloud: Tests of cumulative frequency and frequency trajectory. Memory & Cognition, 32, 31–38. doi:10.3758/BF03195818

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author note

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project PSI2008-05607/PSIC) and by the Universidad de Salamanca (Plan Propio de Apoyo a la Investigación 2013). Suggestions by anonymous reviewers are thankfully acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Psicologia, Universidad de La Laguna, Campus de Guajara, 38205, La Laguna, Spain

    María Angeles Alonso

  2. INICO, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Angel Fernandez & Emiliano Díez

Authors
  1. María Angeles Alonso
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Angel Fernandez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Emiliano Díez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to María Angeles Alonso.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(ZIP 1.16 mb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Alonso, M.A., Fernandez, A. & Díez, E. Subjective age-of-acquisition norms for 7,039 Spanish words. Behav Res 47, 268–274 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0454-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0454-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation