Picture norms for Chinese preschool children: name agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 3; p. e90450
• Main Authors: Wang, Lamei, Chen, Chia-Wen, Zhu, Liqi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 05-03-2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adults; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; China; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Complexity; Familiarity; Humans; Language Development; Language Tests; Medicine; Norms; Photic Stimulation; Pictures; Preschool children; Psycholinguistics; Recognition (Psychology); Social and Behavioral Sciences; Visual stimuli; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090450

Pictorial stimuli standardized for Chinese children are still absent although it is needed in order to test the development of children's cognitive functions. This study presents normative measures for Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures, viewed by 4- and 6-year old Chinese children. Name agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity were obtained for each age group. The data indicate substantial differences between young and older children in name agreement based on expected name, familiarity and visual complexity. The correlation pattern of the variables collected in the present study were consistent with children's norms in other languages and norms of Chinese adults, while there are cross-age and cross-culture differences in specific variables. The obtained measures represent a useful tool for further research on Chinese children's pictorial processing and constitute the first picture normative study for children in this language.