Abstract
This study investigated whether 3- or 4-year old children would show a "word length effect" (i.e., longer words are more difficult to remember) on immediate recoguition tasks. In Experiment 1, 3- or 4-year-olds (n=29) were presented only with phonemic stimuli (Condition 1), while another group of 3- or 4-year-olds (n=30) were presented simultaneously with both phonemic and visual stimuli (Condition 2). When the children were given recognition tasks in a phonemic mode or in a visual mode, they showed a word length effect only in the phonemic mode. In Experiment 2, when 3- or 4-year-olds (n=19) were presented with phonemic stimuli on immediate recognition tasks and delayed recognition tasks, the word length effect was found only for the immediate recognition tasks. The results suggest that the effect of word length on young children reflects not only processing at the point of output of words but also a rehearsal process of phonemically presented stimuli.
