Abstract
Subjective frequency and imageability estimates for a sample of 3,600 French nouns were collected from two independent groups of 72 young adults each. Both groups received standard instructions and provided their ratings on a 7-point scale. The timing, sequencing, presentation of lexical stimuli, and recording of responses were controlled by a computer. All estimates of internal consistency and test—retest reliability (≥.98) confirm the high level of precision and reliability of the ratings. Correlations with ratings drawn from similar studies were found to be positive and significant for subjective frequency (r ≥ .85) and for imageability (r ≥ .69). Subjective frequency was positively and significantly correlated with objective frequency estimates drawn from 10 different sources (r ≥ .42). Subjective frequency and imageability were significantly correlated (r=.26), a relationship that was driven primarily by a sudden drop in imageability ratings for words with a subjective frequency rating below 2.5. The methodological implications of these findings are discussed. The ratings can be downloaded as supplemental materials from brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.
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This research was funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Language and Literacy Research (to Jean Saint-Aubin, Raymond Klein, and A.D.) and a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (to A.D. and Stanislaw Szpakowicz).
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Desrochers, A., Thompson, G.L. Subjective frequency and imageability ratings for 3,600 French nouns. Behavior Research Methods 41, 546–557 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.2.546
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.2.546