Determining the age of acquisition of words for a recognition test using exploratory data analysis

In this paper we discuss the first results carried out on 161 words selected in a previous study on images judging, specifically in what concerns the comparison between two sets of judges. The words were submitted asking to score them according to two differ ently suggested scales of age of acquisition: a free-scale one and another with the suggested slots of ages. The effect of the scale constraints given by the suggested age-classes was studied. Principal Component Analysis, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, and Multiple Factor Analysis were used to analyze the data. The results indicate a good agreement between the two scales, at least as far as it concerns a first principal component, but with differences concerning the scale range used. This represents only around 50% of the information and may be taken as a measure of primitiveness of age acquisition.