Subjective age-of-acquisition norms for 4,640 verbs in Spanish

Behav Res Methods. 2016 Dec;48(4):1337-1342. doi: 10.3758/s13428-015-0675-z.

Abstract

Many studies have shown that how words are processed in a variety of language-related tasks is affected by their age of acquisition (AoA). Most AoA norms have been collected for nouns, a fact that limits the extent to which verb stimuli can be adequately manipulated and controlled in empirical studies. With the aim of increasing the number of verbs with AoA values in Spanish, 900 college students were recruited to provide subjective estimates for a total of 4,640 infinitive and reflexive forms. An AoA score for each verb was obtained by averaging the responses of the participants, and these norms were included, together with additional quantitative information (standard deviations, ranges, and z scores), in a database that can be downloaded with this article as supplemental materials.

Keywords: Age of acquisition; Spanish norms; Verb norms; Word attributes.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Databases, Factual
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Reference Standards*
  • Young Adult