Subjective frequency estimates for 2,938 monosyllabic words

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Lexical Science

Background:

• Understanding word frequency is crucial for psycholinguistic models.
• Subjective frequency estimates offer insights into word familiarity and usage.
• Previous research has explored various factors influencing word perception and recall.

Purpose of the Study:

• To collect and analyze subjective frequency estimates for a large set of English words.
• To investigate the relationship between subjective frequency and objective word properties.
• To determine the predictive power of factors like objective log frequency, meaningfulness, and neighborhood size on subjective frequency.

Main Methods:

• Collected subjective frequency estimates from over 2,000 adults across different age groups and educational backgrounds.
• Utilized a 7-point scale for rating word encounter frequency.
• Employed regression analyses to identify predictors of subjective frequency estimates.
• Collected data from undergraduate students, internet participants, and healthy older adults.

Main Results:

• Objective log frequency and meaningfulness were the strongest predictors of subjective frequency estimates.
• Neighborhood size accounted for the least variance in subjective frequency ratings.
• The predictive utility of log frequency and meaningfulness varied by subjective frequency level: meaningfulness for uncommon words, log frequency for common words.

Conclusions:

• Subjective frequency estimates are valuable for understanding word familiarity.
• Objective word frequency and meaningfulness are significant determinants of perceived word frequency.
• The interplay between word properties and subjective experience provides nuanced insights into lexical processing.