Rapid “Automatized” Naming of Pictured Objects, Colors, Letters and Numbers by Normal Children

180 normal children, ages five through ten years, were given a set of nine naming tests, each involving 50 timed responses to five randomly recurring pictured objects, colors, letters or numbers. “Automatization” of naming, measured by speed, accuracy, and consistency on these tasks, did not parallel the developmental order of acquisition of the various categories of names; letters and numbers were named relatively faster than were colors and objects as early as age six years. Children's facility in “automatization” of naming different semantic categories is considered in terms of the contributions of overlearning, stimulus discriminability, “operativity”, word frequency and response competition; only the last two appear to be explanatory factors.