Age of acquisition and the recognition of brand names: On the importance of being early

Research in cognitive psychology has shown that words, objects and faces learned early in life are recognized more fluently than similar items learned later. Experiment 1 shows that early acquired brand names are recognized more quickly than later acquired brands. Experiment 2 shows that the age of acquisition effect extends to accessing semantic knowledge about brands. In Experiment 3, older participants were faster at recognizing early learned brands that are now extinct than more recent, active brand names. Early surviving brands were recognized quickest of all. The significance of these effects for manufacturers and marketing are discussed.