Novel matched stimuli for assessment of lexical semantics

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of novel semantic tasks and corresponding word lists

Task	Target presentation	Matched semantic and associated pairs	Matched phonological distractors	Matched unrelated stimuli
Semantic priming task	Written	Written primes	N/A	Written
Word-picture verification task	Picture	Written distractors	N/A	N/A
Word-picture matching task	Written and picture	Picture distractors	Picture distractors	Picture distractors

Table 2. Gender and age of participants

Task	Number of participants	Female participants	Minimum age	Maximum age	Mean age
SST	20	12	25	48	32
VST	20	12	26	40	33
Additional SST data	20	11	22	49	32
Additional VST data	20	12	27	39	32

SST: semantic similarity task; VST: visual similarity task

Table 3. (a) Target values for psycholinguistic variables: between-test comparisons (b) Semantic and associate partner values for psycholinguistic variables: between-test comparisons

Psycholinguistic variable (n = 50 per set)	SP median	WPV median	WPM median	χ2	df	p
(a) Targets
Concreteness	4.88 (0.18)	4.89 (0.14)	4.89 (0.28)	1.30	2	0.52
Imageability	595 (22.83)	597 (19.94)	597 (19.77)	0.55	2	0.76
Age of acquisition	5.40 (1.67)	5.11 (1.46)	5.06 (1.81)	0.90	2	0.64
Frequency	10.52 (30.36)	10.44 (25.51)	10.68 (25.74)	0.05	2	0.97
Letters	5 (1.49)	5 (1.54)	5 (1.48)	0.16	2	0.92
Phonemes	4 (1.41)	4 (1.41)	4 (1.51)	0.37	2	0.83
Syllables	1 (0.61)	1 (0.68)	1 (0.65)	0.33	2	0.86
Valence	5.88 (0.88) 49	5.67 (0.95)	5.80 (1.05)	0.92	2	0.63
(b) Semantic and associate partners
Concreteness	4.83 (0.33)	4.83 (0.15) 49	4.89 (0.26) 46	1.80	2	0.41
Imageability	595 (39.97) 37	591 (37.94) 31	591 (31.10) 32	.99	2	0.61
Age of acquisition	6.00 (2.38) 49	6.00 (2.16) 49	5.30 (2.16) 46	3.72	2	0.16
Frequency	6.38 (41.66)	5.58 (35.47)	9.95 (53.55)	0.53	2	0.77
Letters	5 (1.64)	5 (1.39)	5 (1.81)	0.22	2	0.89
Phonemes	4 (1.37)	4 (1.23)	4 (1.61)	0.53	2	0.77
Syllables	2 (0.58)	2 (0.63)	1.5 (0.73)	0.45	2	0.80
Valence	5.44 (0.96) 46	5.52 (0.85) 48	5.51 (1.10) 44	0.93	2	0.63

Standard deviation in brackets. Number of values in a list is provided in italics where this is less than 50. SP: semantic priming; WPV: word-picture verification; WPM: word-picture matching.

Table 4. Semantic similarity and association ratings between targets and partners: between-test comparisons

Relationship rating (n = 50 per set)	SP median	WPV median	WPM median	χ2	df	p
Semantic similarity	5.65 (1.27)	5.60 (1.21)	5.38 (1.41)	1.96	2	0.38
Association	2.00 (8.73) 42	2.00 (9.22) 43	1.00 (9.20) 49	.22	2	0.90

Standard deviation in brackets. Number of values in a list is provided in italics where this is less than 50. SP: semantic priming; WPV: word-picture verification; WPM: word-picture matching.

Table 5. Word-picture matching: comparison of psycholinguistic variables between targets and distractors

Psycholinguistic variable	Targets median	Semantic/associative median	Phonological median	Unrelated median	χ2	df	p
Concreteness	4.89 (0.28)	4.89 (0.26) 46	4.77 (0.27) 49	4.87 (0.18)	13.01	3	<0.01
Imageability	597 (19.77)	591 (31.10) 32	584 (40.74) 36	592 (27.61)	5.49	3	0.14
Age of acquisition	5.06 (1.81)	5.30 (2.16) 46	6.06 (1.55) 49	5.48 (1.41)	7.11	3	0.07
Frequency	10.68 (25.74)	9.95 (53.55)	10.44 (63.95)	9.47 (22.55)	0.71	3	0.87
Letters	5 (1.48)	5 (1.81)	5 (1.44)	4.50 (1.72)	2.25	3	0.52
Phonemes	4 (1.51)	4 (1.61)	4 (1.29)	4 (1.33)	0.91	3	0.82
Syllables	1 (0.65)	1.5 (0.73)	1 (0.58)	1 (0.65)	1.99	3	0.57
Valence	5.80 (1.05)	5.51 (1.10) 44	5.67 (1.01) 47	5.72 (0.94)	0.88	3	0.83

Standard deviation in brackets. Number of values in the list is provided in italics where this is less than 50, where not provided all values are 50.

Table 6. Semantic similarity and association values for semantically similar and associated pairs: between-test comparison

	SP median	WPV median	WPM median	χ2	df	p
Semantically similar pairs
Semantic similarity	6.20 (0.77)	6.18 (0.81)	5.98 (0.97)	1.33	2	0.51
Association	1.00 (2.74) 25	1.00 (2.20) 27	1.00 (3.26) 31	0.82	2	0.67
Associated pairs
Semantic similarity	3.95 (0.92)	4.00 (0.78)	3.73 (0.84)	3.19	2	0.20
Association	6.00 (12.29) 17	14.00 (11.32) 16	4.00 (13.63)	2.75	2	0.25

Rating scale for semantic similarity: 1 = not similar in meaning, 5 = moderately similar in meaning, 9 = highly similar in meaning. Standard deviations in brackets plus values of n in italics, where n < 32 (semantically similar pairs) or n < 18 (associated pairs) where association values were missing from the Edinburgh Association Thesaurus. SP: semantic priming; WPV: word-picture verification; WPM: word-picture matching.

Table 7. Semantic similarity and association measures: within-test comparisons

	SP Median	WPV Median	WPM Median
Semantic similarity ratings
Semantically similar pairs (n = 32)	6.20 (0.77)	6.18 (0.81)	5.98 (0.97)
Associated pairs (n = 18)	3.95 (0.92)	4.00 (0.78)	3.73 (0.84)
U	29.5	34.5	28.0
z	−5.227	−5.125	−5.256
p	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Word association values
Semantically similar pairs (n = 32)	1.00 (2.74) 25	1.00 (2.20) 27	1.00 (3.26) 31
Associated pairs (n = 18)	6.00 (12.29) 17	14.00 (11.32) 16	4.00 (13.63)
U	106.5	55.0	186.5
z	−2.777	−4.111	−1.954
p	0.002	<0.001	0.026

Rating scale for semantic similarity: 1 = not similar in meaning, 5 = moderately similar in meaning, 9 = highly similar in meaning. Standard deviations in brackets plus values of n in italics, where n < 32 (semantically similar pairs) or n < 18 (associated pairs) where association values were missing from the Edinburgh Association Thesaurus. One tailed exact significance values of p reported as all comparisons predicted direction of difference. SP: semantic priming; WPV: word-picture verification; WPM: word-picture matching.

Table 8. Median semantic similarity ratings for target-distractor pairs in word-picture matching

Semantic similarity ratings	Semantically similar/associated	Phonologically related	Unrelated
Number	50	50	50
Median	5.38	1.10	1.05
Standard deviation	0.82	0.24	0.22

Rating scale: 1 = not similar in meaning, 5 = moderately similar in meaning, 9 = highly similar in meaning.

Table 9. Comparison of visual similarity between stimuli in word-picture matching

Visual similarity ratings	Target-semantic /associative distractors	Target-phonological distractors	Target-unrelated distractors
Number	50	50	50
Median	3.60	1.08	1.05
Standard deviation	2.18	0.53	0.35

Rating scale: 1 = not visually similar, 5 = moderately visually similar, 9 = highly visually similar.

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

The assessment images are also available from the corresponding author, Lucy Dyson, upon reasonable request.