Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2026

The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content
Published on: June 29, 2016
English verbs semantic norms database: Concreteness, embodiment, imageability, valence and arousal ratings for 3,500
Emiko J Muraki1, Penny M Pexman2,3
1Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Canada. ejmuraki@ucalgary.ca.
Abstract:
Semantic ratings studies have resulted in significant methodological advances towards understanding the importance of experiential information to lexical-semantic processing. Yet, the existing norms are biased towards nouns, with fewer ratings available for verbs. In the present study, we collected new semantic rating norms for 3,512 verbs on the dimensions of concreteness, embodiment, imageability, valence, and arousal. The resulting ratings provide the largest database of verb-specific rating norms across multiple semantic dimensions. They show good reliability and validity on four of five dimensions, with some evident challenges in rating arousal for the verb stimuli. We demonstrate that the norms account for variance in response latencies and accuracy in a lexical decision task, word recognition task, and recognition memory, above and beyond dimensions such as length, frequency, orthographic Levenshtein distance, and age of acquisition, and thus that semantic richness effects are observed in verb processing. The norms described here should be a useful resource for researchers interested in verb lexical-semantic processing.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
The Representativeness Heuristic
Stereotype Content Model
Valence Bond Theory
Sensory Modalities
General senses refer to the broad category of sensory information detected by receptors in the body and can be further grouped into somatic and visceral senses. Somatic sensations include touch, pressure, temperature, and pain and are essential for navigating our environment and...
Encoding
Automatic processing involves the encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words, usually done without conscious...
Explicit Memories
Episodic memory contains information about personally experienced events and is reported as a story. An example of episodic memory is recalling a birthday celebration. This type of memory includes the what, where, and when of an event, as...

