The Bristol norms for age of acquisition, imageability, and familiarity
Open accessAbstract
Ratings of age of acquisition (AoA), imageability, and familiarity were collected for 1,526 words. The methodology made use of a modular approach, in which the full sample of words was divided into five separate blocks. Within each block, each word was rated on each of the three variables by 20 participants (undergraduate students from the University of Bristol). Analyses comparing these ratings to existing norm databases demonstrated that this methodology resulted in high reliability (assessed by Cronbach's a) and validity. The ratings were also transformed to be compatible with the Gilhooly and Logie (1980) norms. This transformation resulted in a set of norms for 3,394 words, which is by far the largest database of ratings forAoA, imageability,and familiarity t o date. The resulting databaseshould be useful for researchers interested in manipulating or controlling these factors in word recognition, neuropsychological, or memory studies. These norms can be downloaded from language.psy.bris .ac.uk/bristol_norms.html.
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- Authors
- Stadthagen-Gonzalez, H., & Davis, C. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Bristol (GB)
- ORCID
- Davis, Colin J.
- Venue
- Behavior Research Methods
- Published
- 2006-11
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 598-605
- ISSN
- 1554-351X (ISSN-L)
- 1554-3528
- OpenAlex
- W2076431357
- Semantic Scholar
- 754cb95ea347df83f1cca8ee0ab38735bc1fc908
- Cited by
- 315
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 11.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Behavior Research Methods (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (publishedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- Economic and Social Research Council (PTA-026-27-0769)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- age of acquisition, imageability, familiarity, word norms, word recognition, lexical decision, reference values, word ratings, neuropsychology
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Cognition, Female, Humans, Imagination, Language, Male, Speech, Students, Verbal Behavior, Verbal Learning, Vocabulary
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