Grasping Variance in Word Norms: Individual Differences in Motor Imagery and Semantic Ratings
Word norming datasets have become an important resource for psycholinguistic research, and they are based on the underlying assumption that individual differences are inconsequential to the measurement of semantic dimensions. In this pre-registered study we tested this assumption by examining whethe...
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Ubiquity Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/418 |
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| author | Emiko J. Muraki Sydney Born Penny M. Pexman |
| author_facet | Emiko J. Muraki Sydney Born Penny M. Pexman |
| author_sort | Emiko J. Muraki |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Word norming datasets have become an important resource for psycholinguistic research, and they are based on the underlying assumption that individual differences are inconsequential to the measurement of semantic dimensions. In this pre-registered study we tested this assumption by examining whether individual differences in motor imagery are related to variance in semantic ratings. We collected graspability ratings (i.e., how easily a word’s referent can be grasped using one hand) for 350 words and also had each participant complete a series of motor imagery questionnaires. Using linear mixed effect models we tested whether measures of motor imagery ability (e.g., the Florida Praxis Imagery Questionnaire and the Test of Ability in Movement Imagery for Hands) and motor imagery vividness (e.g., the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire 2) could account for variance (raw and absolute difference scores) in graspability ratings. We observed a significant relationship between motor imagery vividness and absolute rating difference scores, wherein people with more vivid motor imagery provided ratings that were further from the mean word ratings. However there was no relationship between motor imagery and raw rating difference scores. The results suggest that there are measurable systematic differences in how participants make sensorimotor semantic ratings, which has implications for how sensorimotor semantic word norms are used for investigations of lexical semantic processing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a7fdd50cf0054520b9bdf935c155ef98 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2514-4820 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-a7fdd50cf0054520b9bdf935c155ef982025-02-11T05:36:32ZengUbiquity PressJournal of Cognition2514-48202025-01-0181121210.5334/joc.418417Grasping Variance in Word Norms: Individual Differences in Motor Imagery and Semantic RatingsEmiko J. Muraki0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9534-6538Sydney Born1Penny M. Pexman2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7130-0973Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, CalgaryDepartment of Psychology, University of Calgary, CalgaryDepartment of Psychology, Western University, LondonWord norming datasets have become an important resource for psycholinguistic research, and they are based on the underlying assumption that individual differences are inconsequential to the measurement of semantic dimensions. In this pre-registered study we tested this assumption by examining whether individual differences in motor imagery are related to variance in semantic ratings. We collected graspability ratings (i.e., how easily a word’s referent can be grasped using one hand) for 350 words and also had each participant complete a series of motor imagery questionnaires. Using linear mixed effect models we tested whether measures of motor imagery ability (e.g., the Florida Praxis Imagery Questionnaire and the Test of Ability in Movement Imagery for Hands) and motor imagery vividness (e.g., the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire 2) could account for variance (raw and absolute difference scores) in graspability ratings. We observed a significant relationship between motor imagery vividness and absolute rating difference scores, wherein people with more vivid motor imagery provided ratings that were further from the mean word ratings. However there was no relationship between motor imagery and raw rating difference scores. The results suggest that there are measurable systematic differences in how participants make sensorimotor semantic ratings, which has implications for how sensorimotor semantic word norms are used for investigations of lexical semantic processing.https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/418semantic variablesmotor imageryindividual differenceslexical semantic processing |
| spellingShingle | Emiko J. Muraki Sydney Born Penny M. Pexman Grasping Variance in Word Norms: Individual Differences in Motor Imagery and Semantic Ratings Journal of Cognition semantic variables motor imagery individual differences lexical semantic processing |
| title | Grasping Variance in Word Norms: Individual Differences in Motor Imagery and Semantic Ratings |
| title_full | Grasping Variance in Word Norms: Individual Differences in Motor Imagery and Semantic Ratings |
| title_fullStr | Grasping Variance in Word Norms: Individual Differences in Motor Imagery and Semantic Ratings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Grasping Variance in Word Norms: Individual Differences in Motor Imagery and Semantic Ratings |
| title_short | Grasping Variance in Word Norms: Individual Differences in Motor Imagery and Semantic Ratings |
| title_sort | grasping variance in word norms individual differences in motor imagery and semantic ratings |
| topic | semantic variables motor imagery individual differences lexical semantic processing |
| url | https://account.journalofcognition.org/index.php/up-j-jc/article/view/418 |
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