Yaling Hsiao|Kate Nation
Semantic diversity, frequency and the development of lexical quality in children’s word reading
University of Oxford|University of Oxford
frequency exerts powerful influence lexical processing possible least part effect caused high frequency words experienced diverse contexts individuals language experience capture variability applied latent semantic analysis 35millionword corpus texts written children deriving measure semantic diversity quantifies similarity contexts word appears across three experiments 613yearold children involving reading aloud lexical decision found main effect semantic diversity high diversity words responded faster read accurately low diversity words frequency document count age acquisition also significant predictors reading behaviour findings demonstrate contextual variability contributes word learning development lexical quality beyond effect frequency