Abstract
Twenty-four judges estimated the conceptual difficulty level of 870 five-letter words, using a 5-point scale. The words were selected from three word-frequency categories (1, 5–10, and 50–3,562/million) based on the word counts provided by Kučera and Francis (1967). The ratings were reliable. Tables in this paper list the means and standard deviations of the ratings for each word. Reaction time (RT) for valid word identification was tested in 20 subjects, using four sets of 50 words designed to test the effects of word frequency and word difficulty. RT was longer for more difficult words when word frequency was held constant. A word-frequency effect on RT was present when difficulty was held constant. The relationship of the results to subjective estimates of word familiarity is discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baker, E., &Goodglass, H. (1979). Time for auditory processing of object names by aphasics.Brain & Language,8, 355–366.
Dobbs, A. R., Friedman, A., &Lloyd, J. (1985). Frequency effects in lexical decisions: A test of the verification model.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,11, 81–92.
Gernsbacher, M. A. (1983, April).The experiential familiarity norms and their psychological reality. Paper presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association, San Antonio, TX.
Gernsbacher, M. A. (1984). Resolving 20 years of inconsistent interactions between lexical familiarity and orthography, concreteness, and polysemy.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,113, 256–281.
Gerratt, B. R., &Jones, D. (1987). Aphasic performance on a lexical decision task: Multiple meanings and word frequency.Brain & Language,30, 106–115.
Gilhooly, K. J., &Logie, R. H. (1980). Age-of-acquisition, imagery, concreteness, familiarity, and ambiguity measures for 1,944 words.Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation,12, 395–427.
Gilhooly, K.J., &Logie, R. H. (1982). Word age-of-acquisition and lexical decision making.Acta Psychologica,50, 21–34.
Graf, P., &Williams, D. (1987). Completion norms for 40 three-letter word stems.Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers,19, 422–445.
Hays, W. L. (1963).Statistics for psychologists. New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston.
Kibby, M. W. (1977). Note on relationship of word difficulty and word frequency.Psychological Reports,41, 12–14.
Kučera, H., &Francis, W. N. (1967).Computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence, Rl: Brown University Press.
Matlin, M. W., &Derby, P. L. (1978). Relationship between repression-sensitization and word frequency estimates for pleasant and unpleasant words.Perceptual & Motor Skills,46, 351–354.
McCann, R. S., Besner, D., &Davelaar, E. (1988). Word recognition and identification: Do word-frequency effects reflect lexical access?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,14, 693–706.
Monsell, S., Doyle, M. C., &Haggard, P. N. (1989). Effects of frequency on visual word recognition tasks: Where are they?Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,118, 43–71.
Neisser, U., &Beller, H. K. (1965). Searching through word lists.British Journal of Psychology,56, 349–358.
Polich, J., &Donchin, E. (1988). P300 and the word frequency effect.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,70, 33–45.
Rudell, A. P. (1991). The recognition potential contrasted with the P300.International Journal of Neuroscience,60, 85–111.
Rudell, A. P. (1992). Rapid stream stimulation and the recognition potential.Electroencephalography & Clinical Neurophysiology,83, 77–82.
Sabol, M. A., &DeRosa, D. V. (1976) Semantic encoding of isolated words.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory,2, 58–68.
Scarborough, D. L., Cortese, C., &Scarborough, H. S. (1977). Frequency and repetition effects in lexical memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,3, 1–17.
Schwanenflugel, P. J., Harnishfeger, K. K., &Stowe, R. W. (1988). Context availability and lexical decisions for abstract and concrete words.Journal of Memory & Language,27, 499–520.
Stuss, D. T., Picton, T. W., &Cerri, A. M. (1988). Electrophysiological manifestations of typicality judgment.Brain & Language,33, 260–272.
Thorndike, E. L., &Lorge, I. (1944).The teacher’s word book of 30,000 words. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University.
Winer, B. J. (1971).Statistical principles in experimental design. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was supported in part by Public Health Service Grant 1 R01 NS29340-01A1 awarded to the author.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rudell, A.P. Frequency of word usage and perceived word difficulty: Ratings of Kučera and Francis words. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 25, 455–463 (1993). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204543
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204543