Perceptual Experience Norms for 506 Russian Nouns: Modality Rating, Spatial Localization, Manipulability, Imageability and Other Variables

Abstract

A number of new psycholinguistic variables has been proposed during the last years within embodied cognition framework: modality experience rating (i.e., relationship between words and images of a particular perceptive modality—visual, auditory, haptic etc.), manipulability (the necessity for an object to interact with human hands in order to perform its function), vertical spatial localization. However, it is not clear how these new variables are related to each other and to such traditional variables as imageability, AoA and word frequency. In this article, normative data on the modality (visual, auditory, haptic, olfactory, and gustatory) ratings, vertical spatial localization of the object, manipulability, imageability, age of acquisition, and subjective frequency for 506 Russian nouns are presented. Strongest correlations were observed between olfactory and gustatory modalities (.81), visual modality and imageability (.78), haptic modality and manipulability (.7). Other modalities also significantly correlate with imageability: olfactory (.35), gustatory (.24), and haptic (.67). Factor analysis divided variables into four groups where visual and haptic modality ratings were combined with imageability, manipulability and AoA (the first factor); word length, frequency and AoA formed the second factor; olfactory modality was united with gustatory (the third factor); spatial localization only is included in the fourth factor. Present norms of imageability and AoA are consistent with previous as correlation analysis has revealed. The complete database can be downloaded from supplementary material.

Appendices

Appendix 1: The List of Labels Used in the Supplementary Material

• WORD: the word in Russian

• Transliteration: transliteration of the word in Latin script

• English_Translation: approximate English translation (online-dictionary ABBYY Lingvo was used: www.lingvo.ru)

• Category: Semantic category of the word. The following values are possible:

  • Action

  • Animal

  • Body_part

  • Building

  • Clothes (names of clothes and accessories)

  • Food (names of fruits, vegetables, berries etc.)

  • Ground (lower-space related objects and surface names)

  • Intelligence (names of mental states and processes)

  • Object (a few objects taken from the previous rating study and not included in any other category in this study; mostly upper- or lower-space related objects)

  • Sense_Emotion (names of emotions)

  • Sense_Phys (names of physical experiences)

  • Sound

  • Space (upper-space related objects and phenomena)

  • Tool_power_grip (names of tools that are used with power grip)

  • Tool_precise_grip (names of tools that are used with precise grip)

  • Transport

• Abstractness: the abstractness of the category:

  • Abstract (categories: Action, Intelligence, Sense_Emotion, Sense_Phys)

  • Concrete (all other categories)

• Length: word length in letters

• Gender: gender of the word. The following values are possible:

  • f: feminine

  • m: masculine

  • n: neuter

  • plur_tant: pluralia tantum

• Fr_obj_Lg: decimal logarithm of objective word frequency (based on Ljashevskaja and Sharov 2009)

• Vis_Mean: mean of the visual modality rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Vis_SD: standard deviation of the visual modality rating

• Aud_Mean: mean of the auditory modality rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Aud_SD: standard deviation of the auditory modality rating

• Olf_Mean: mean of the olfactory modality rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Olf_SD: standard deviation of the olfactory modality rating

• Gus_Mean: mean of the gustatory modality rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Gus_SD: standard deviation of the gustatory modality rating

• Hap_Mean: mean of the haptic modality rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Hap_SD: standard deviation of the haptic modality rating

• Img_Mean: mean of imageability rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Img_SD: standard deviation of imageability rating

• Man_Mean: mean of manipulability rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Man_SD: standard deviation of manipulability rating

• Space17_Mean: mean of spatial localization rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Space17_SD: standard deviation of spatial localization rating

• AoA_Mean: mean of age of acquisition rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• AoA_SD: standard deviation of age of acquisition rating

• Fr_Mean: mean of subjective frequency rating (1—the lowest; 7—the highest)

• Fr_SD: standard deviation of subjective frequency rating

Appendix 2: The Instructions Used In the Study

The following instructions (in Russian) were used in the study:

Imageability “The words differ in their ability to arouse mental images of things or phenomena. For example, when you hear or read the word “apple”, perhaps, you can easily and fast imagine yourself the image of this object. On the other hand, one cannot so easily imagine “fact”. Please estimate the words in the list by using a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 is a low imageability (i.e., the word arouses images slowly and hardly or doesn’t arouses them at all) and 7 is a high imageability (i.e., the word arouses images fast and easily).” (Based on Paivio et al. (1968) with reductions).

Visual rating “Different words can be related to different perceptual modalities, i.e., vision, hearing, gustatory modality, olfactory modality or touch. Please estimate the words in the list by their relatedness to the visual modality: 7 means the strongest relatedness to vision, 1 means the weakest relatedness to vision.”

Auditory rating “Different words can be related to different perceptual modalities, i.e., vision, hearing, gustatory modality, olfactory modality or touch. Please estimate the words in the list by their relatedness to the auditory modality: 7 means the strongest relatedness to hearing, 1 means the weakest relatedness to hearing.”

Tactile rating “Different words can be related to different perceptual modalities, i.e., vision, hearing, gustatory modality, olfactory modality or touch. Please estimate the words in the list by their relatedness to the tactile modality: 7 means the strongest relatedness to touch, 1 means the weakest relatedness to touch.”

Olfactory rating “Different words can be related to different perceptual modalities, i.e., vision, hearing, gustatory modality, olfactory modality or touch. Please estimate the words in the list by their relatedness to the olfactory modality: 7 means the strongest relatedness to olfaction, 1 means the weakest relatedness to olfaction.”

Gustatory rating “Different words can be related to different perceptual modalities, i.e., vision, hearing, gustatory modality, olfactory modality or touch. Please estimate the words in the list by their relatedness to the gustatory modality: 7 means the strongest relatedness to taste, 1 means the weakest relatedness to taste.”

Manipulability “In order to make some objects performing their functions, one has to use hands. For example, in order to make a cigarette performing its function (“being smoked”), the use of hands is necessary. On the other hand, no one interacts with a volcano with help of hands in order to perform its function (“to erupt”). Please estimate the words in the list by the necessity of use of human hands in order to make objects performing their typical functions: 7—the use of hands is always necessary, 1—hands are never used for interaction with this object. Some objects can be used in different ways: an oyster can be an ingredient of a meal (in this case people use their hands in order to make an oyster “being cooked”); on the other hand, it is a living being, and people don’t have to interact with it to make it “living”. In such cases estimate the word according to the option that came first in your mind.” (Based on Moreno-Martínez et al. (2014) with reductions).

Spatial localization “Some objects or phenomena are usually located higher or lower in space. Please estimate how high or low the object is located by using a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 is “very low”, and 7 is “very high”.” (another option: “where 1 is “very high”, a 7 is “very low”.”).

Subjective frequency “Different words are used in speech with different frequency. Please estimate how often you meet with every word by using a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 is “very seldom”, and 7 is “very often”.”

Age of acquisition “We learn different words at different ages. Please mark the age (the number of years) at which you have learnt every word in the list. Please use numbers from 0 to 15. Use dash in case you don’t know the word.” (Partially based on Kolbeneva and Aleksandrov (2010), where seven intervals of 2 years each were used, covering the age range from 0 to 13 years).

Every instruction (except for AoA) included also a visually represented 7-point Likert scale (horizontally oriented from left to right; vertically oriented for Spatial localization rating in two variants (1 is above vs. 1 is below) randomly distributed between participants). Every instruction ended with the following statement: “Work as fast as possible, don’t think too long about every word. At the same time try to be objective and concentrated. If you need, you can reread the instruction and continue to estimate the nouns. Please don’t make breaks while working; estimate all the words during one session.”