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Updated: May 21, 2026
14:38
Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
Published on: November 2, 2012
Perceptual and motor attribute ratings for 559 object concepts
Ben D Amsel1, Thomas P Urbach, Marta Kutas
1Center for Research in Language, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA. bamsel@ucsd.edu
Behavior Research Methods
|June 26, 2012
Summary
This study provides comprehensive object attribute norms, revealing two key dimensions related to survival. These findings aid in understanding how object knowledge impacts language processing and experimental design.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
Background:
- Understanding object knowledge is crucial for language comprehension.
- Existing normative data on object attributes is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To create comprehensive object attribute rating norms for 559 concrete nouns.
- To investigate how object knowledge influences neural processes in language.
- To provide data for designing and interpreting perceptual and conceptual object processing experiments.
Main Methods:
- Collected ratings on seven attributes (color, motion, sound, smell, taste, graspability, pain) and familiarity for 559 object nouns.
- Utilized 376 raters, with an average of 23 raters per item.
- Performed principal-components analysis on the mean ratings.
Main Results:
- Identified two primary dimensions from the object attribute ratings.
- These dimensions are plausibly interpreted as relating to survival.
- Demonstrated the utility of these ratings in explaining lexical and semantic decision latencies.
Conclusions:
- The developed object attribute norms offer valuable data for cognitive and linguistic research.
- These norms can enhance the understanding of how object knowledge impacts language comprehension.
- The findings support the use of these ratings in experimental design for object processing studies.
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