Prior research suggests that the development of speech perception and word recognition stabilises in early childhood. However, recent work suggests that development of these processes continues throughout adolescence. This study aimed to investigate whether these developmental changes are based solely within the lexical system or are due to domain general changes, and to extend this investigation to lexical-semantic processing. We used two Visual World Paradigm tasks: one to examine phonological and semantic processing, one to capture non-linguistic domain-general skills. We tested 43 seven- to nine-year-olds, 42 ten- to thirteen-year-olds, and 30 sixteen- to seventeen-year-olds. Older children were quicker to fixate the target word and exhibited earlier onset and offset of fixations to both semantic and phonological competitors. Visual/cognitive skills explained significant, but not all, variance in the development of these effects. Developmental changes in semantic activation were largely attributable to changes in upstream phonological processing. These results suggest that the concurrent development of linguistic processes and broader visual/cognitive skills lead to developmental changes in real-time phonological competition, while semantic activation is more stable across these ages.
AllopennaP. D.MagnusonJ. S.TanenhausM. K. (1998). Tracking the time course of spoken word recognition using eye movements: Evidence for continuous mapping models. Journal of Memory and Language, 38(4), 419–439. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1997.2558
2.
ApfelbaumK. S.BlumsteinS. E.McMurrayB. (2011). Semantic priming is affected by real-time phonological competition: Evidence for continuous cascading systems. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18(1), 141–149. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-010-0039-8
3.
ApfelbaumK. S.GoodwinC.BlomquistC.McMurrayB. (2023). The development of lexical competition in written- and spoken-word recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76(1), 196–219. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221090483
4.
ApfelbaumK. S.Klein-PackardJ.McMurrayB. (2021). The pictures who shall not be named: Empirical support for benefits of preview in the Visual World Paradigm. Journal of Memory and Language, 121, 104279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2021.104279
5.
ApfelbaumK. S.McMurrayB. (2017). Learning during processing: Word learning doesn’t wait for word recognition to finish. Cognitive Science, 41, 706–747.
6.
Arias-TrejoN.PlunkettK. (2009). Lexical–semantic priming effects during infancy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1536), 3633–3647. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0146
7.
Arias-TrejoN.PlunkettK. (2013). What’s in a link: Associative and taxonomic priming effects in the infant lexicon. Cognition, 128(2), 214–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.03.008
8.
BaddeleyA. D.ThomsonN.BuchananM. (1975). Word length and the structure of short-term memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 14(6), 575–589.
9.
BergelsonE.AslinR. N. (2017a). Nature and origins of the lexicon in 6-mo-olds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(49), 12916–12921. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1712966114
10.
BergelsonE.AslinR. N. (2017b). Semantic specificity in one-year-olds’ word comprehension. Language Learning and Development, 13(4), 481–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2017.1324308
11.
BorovskyA.PetersR. E. (2019). Vocabulary size and structure affects real-time lexical recognition in 18-month-olds. PLOS ONE, 14(7), Article e0219290. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219290
12.
ChenQ.MirmanD. (2012). Competition and cooperation among similar representations: Toward a unified account of facilitative and inhibitory effects of lexical neighbors. Psychological Review, 119(2), 417–430. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027175
DahanD.GaskellM. G. (2007). The temporal dynamics of ambiguity resolution: Evidence from spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 57(4), 483–501.
15.
DahanD.MagnusonJ. S.TanenhausM. K.HoganE. M. (2001). Subcategorical mismatches and the time course of lexical access: Evidence for lexical competition. Language and Cognitive Processes, 16(5–6), 507–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960143000074
16.
De DeyneS.StormsG. (2008). Word associations: Network and semantic properties. Behavior Research Methods, 40(1), 213–231. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.1.213
17.
ErbC. D.MoherJ.SongJ.-H.SobelD. M. (2018). Reach tracking reveals dissociable processes underlying inhibitory control in 5- to 10-year-olds and adults. Developmental Science, 21(2), Article e12523. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12523
18.
Farris-TrimbleA.McMurrayB. (2013). Test-retest reliability of eye tracking in the visual world paradigm for the study of real-time spoken word recognition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research: JSLHR, 56(4). 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/12-0145). https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2012/12-0145)
19.
Farris-TrimbleA.McMurrayB.CigrandN.TomblinJ. B. (2014). The process of spoken word recognition in the face of signal degradation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 40(1), 308–327. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034353
20.
FernaldA.MarchmanV. A. (2012). Individual differences in lexical processing at 18 months predict vocabulary growth in typically developing and late-talking toddlers. Child Development, 83(1), 203–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01692.x
21.
FernaldA.PerforsA.MarchmanV. A. (2006). Picking up speed in understanding: Speech processing efficiency and vocabulary growth across the 2nd year. Developmental Psychology, 42(1), 98–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.42.1.98
22.
FernaldA.PintoJ. P.SwingleyD.WeinbergA.McRobertsG. W. (1998). Rapid gains in speed of verbal processing by infants in the 2nd year. Psychological Science, 9(3), 228–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00044
23.
FernaldA.SwingleyD.PintoJ. P. (2001). When half a word is enough: Infants can recognize spoken words using partial phonetic information. Child Development, 72(4), 1003–1015. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00331
24.
FrauenfelderU. H.ScholtenM.ContentA. (2001). Bottom-up inhibition in lexical selection: Phonological mismatch effects in spoken word recognition. Language and Cognitive Processes, 16(5–6), 583–607.
25.
GolinkoffR. M.Hirsh-PasekK.SmithL. B.BloomL.WoodwardA. L. (2000). Becoming a Word Learner: A Debate on Lexical Acquisition. Oxford University Press.
HuangY. T.SnedekerJ. (2011). Cascading activation across levels of representation in children’s lexical processing*. Journal of Child Language, 38(3), 644–661. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000910000206
28.
HuettigF.AltmannG. T. (2005). Word meaning and the control of eye fixation: Semantic competitor effects and the visual world paradigm. Cognition, 96(1), B23–B32.
29.
KailR. V. (2007). Longitudinal evidence that increases in processing speed and working memory enhance children’s reasoning. Psychological Science, 18(4), 312–313.
30.
KleinK. E.WalkerE. A.McMurrayB. (2023). Delayed Lexical Access and Cascading Effects on Spreading Semantic Activation During Spoken Word Recognition in Children With Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants: Evidence From Eye-Tracking. Ear and Hearing, 44(2), 338. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000001286
31.
LawF.MahrT.SchneebergA.EdwardsJ. (2017). Vocabulary size and auditory word recognition in preschool children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 38(1), 89–125. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716416000126
32.
LevyR.BicknellK.SlatteryT.RaynerK. (2009). Eye movement evidence that readers maintain and act on uncertainty about past linguistic input. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(50), 21086–21090.
33.
LuceP. A.CluffM. S. (1998). Delayed commitment in spoken word recognition: Evidence from cross-modal priming. Perception & Psychophysics, 60(3), 484–490. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206868
34.
LuceP. A.PisoniD. B. (1998). Recognizing spoken words: The neighborhood activation model. Ear and Hearing, 19(1), 1–36.
35.
MagnusonJ. S. (2019). Fixations in the visual world paradigm: Where, when, why?Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 3(2), 113–139. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-019-00035-3
36.
ManiN.DurrantS.FlocciaC. (2012). Activation of phonological and semantic codes in toddlers. Journal of Memory and Language, 66(4), 612–622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2012.03.003
37.
MarchmanV. A.FernaldA. (2008). Speed of word recognition and vocabulary knowledge in infancy predict cognitive and language outcomes in later childhood. Developmental Science, 11(3), F9–F16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00671.x
38.
Marslen-WilsonW. D. (1987). Functional parallelism in spoken word-recognition. Cognition, 25(1–2), 71–102.
39.
Marslen-WilsonW. D.ZwitserloodP. (1989). Accessing spoken words: The importance of word onsets. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 15(3), 576–585. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.15.3.576
40.
MastersonJ.StuartM.DixonM.LovejoyS. (2010). Children’s printed word database: Continuities and changes over time in children’s early reading vocabulary. British Journal of Psychology, 101(2), 221–242. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712608X371744
41.
McClellandJ. L.ElmanJ. L. (1986). Interactive processes in speech perception: The TRACE model. Parallel Distributed Processing, 2(58), 121.
42.
McMurrayB. (2023). I’m not sure that curve means what you think it means: Toward a [more] realistic understanding of the role of eye-movement generation in the Visual World Paradigm. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 30(1), 102–146. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02143-8
43.
McMurrayB.ApfelbaumK. S.TomblinJ. B. (2022). The Slow Development of Real-Time Processing: Spoken-Word Recognition as a Crucible for New Thinking About Language Acquisition and Language Disorders. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 31(4), 305–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214221078325
McMurrayB.EllisT. P.ApfelbaumK. S. (2019). How do you deal with uncertainty? Cochlear implant users differ in the dynamics of lexical processing of noncanonical inputs. Ear and Hearing, 40(4), 961–980. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000681
46.
McMurrayB.HorstJ. S.SamuelsonL. K. (2012). Word learning emerges from the interaction of online referent selection and slow associative learning. Psychological Review, 119(4), 831–877. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029872
47.
McMurrayB.Klein-PackardJ.TomblinJ. B. (2019). A real-time mechanism underlying lexical deficits in developmental language disorder: Between-word inhibition. Cognition, 191, 104000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.06.012
48.
McMurrayB.SamelsonV. M.LeeS. H.TomblinJ. B. (2010). Individual differences in online spoken word recognition: Implications for SLI. Cognitive Psychology, 60(1), 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2009.06.003
49.
McRaeK.CreeG. S.SeidenbergM. S.McnorganC. (2005). Semantic feature production norms for a large set of living and nonliving things. Behavior Research Methods, 37(4), 547–559. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192726
50.
MirmanD.MagnusonJ. S. (2009). Dynamics of activation of semantically similar concepts during spoken word recognition. Memory & Cognition, 37(7), 1026–1039.
51.
NorrisD.McQueenJ. M. (2008). Shortlist B: A Bayesian model of continuous speech recognition. Psychological Review, 115(2), 357–395. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.115.2.357
52.
RiglerH.Farris-TrimbleA.GreinerL.WalkerJ.TomblinJ. B.McMurrayB. (2015). The slow developmental time course of real-time spoken word recognition. Developmental Psychology, 51(12), 1690.
53.
SekerinaI. A.BrooksP. J. (2007). Eye movements during spoken word recognition in Russian children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 98(1), 20–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2007.04.005
54.
SimmonsE. S.MagnusonJ. S. (2018). Word length, proportion of overlap, and phonological competition in spoken word recognition. In Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 1062–1067). National Science Foundation.
55.
SmolakE.HelmJ. L.Patrucco-NanchenT.ZesigerP.FriendM. (2022). Convergence and divergence in prediction from vocabulary and speed of word processing. Cognitive Development, 64, 101249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101249
56.
SmolakE.HendricksonK.ZesigerP.Poulin-DuboisD.FriendM. (2021). Visual and haptic responses as measures of word comprehension and speed of processing in toddlers: Relative predictive utility. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 203, 105032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2020.105032
57.
StorkelH. L.HooverJ. R. (2010). An online calculator to compute phonotactic probability and neighborhood density on the basis of child corpora of spoken American English. Behavior Research Methods, 42(2), 497–506. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.2.497
TanenhausM.Spivey-KnowltonM.EberhardK.SedivyJ. (1995). Integration of visual and linguistic information in spoken language comprehension. Science, 268(5217), 1632–1634. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7777863
60.
TeruyaH.KapatsinskiV. (2019). Deciding to look: Revisiting the linking hypothesis for spoken word recognition in the visual world. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 34(7), 861–880.
61.
TorkildsenJ. V. K.SyversenG.SimonsenH. G.MoenI.LindgrenM. (2007). Electrophysiological correlates of auditory semantic priming in 24-month-olds. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 20(4), 332–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.02.003
62.
ToscanoJ. C.AndersonN. D.McMurrayB. (2013). Reconsidering the role of temporal order in spoken word recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20(5), 981–987. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0417-0
63.
VinsonD. P.ViglioccoG. (2008). Semantic feature production norms for a large set of objects and events. Behavior Research Methods, 40(1), 183–190. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.1.183
64.
WerkerJ. F.CurtinS. (2005). PRIMIR: A developmental framework of infant speech processing. Language Learning and Development, 1(2), 197–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2005.9684216
65.
WerkerJ. F.YeungH. H. (2005). Infant speech perception bootstraps word learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(11), 519–527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.09.003
66.
WestermannG.ManiN. (2017). Early word learning. Routledge.
67.
WillitsJ. A.WojcikE. H.SeidenbergM. S.SaffranJ. R. (2013). Toddlers activate lexical semantic knowledge in the absence of visual referents: Evidence from auditory priming. Infancy, 18(6), 1053–1075. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12026
68.
WoodwardA. L.MarkmanE. M. (1998). Early word learning. In Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 2. Cognition, perception, and language (pp. 371–420). John Wiley.
69.
YeeE.BlumsteinS. E.SedivyJ. C. (2008). Lexical-semantic activation in Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasia: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(4), 592–612. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.20056
70.
YeeE.HuffstetlerS.Thompson-SchillS. L. (2011). Function follows form: Activation of shape and function features during object identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140(3), 348–363. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022840
71.
YeeE.OvertonE.Thompson-SchillS. L. (2009). Looking for meaning: Eye movements are sensitive to overlapping semantic features, not association. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(5), 869–874. https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.5.869
72.
YeeE.SedivyJ. C. (2006). Eye movements to pictures reveal transient semantic activation during spoken word recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.32.1.1
73.
ZwitserloodP. (1989). The locus of the effects of sentential-semantic context in spoken-word processing. Cognition, 32(1), 25–64.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
