SE367: Introduction to Cognitive Science

Instructions to fill 'Imageability Rating Form'


Imageabiity is defined as the ease with which a word gives rise to a mental image (i.e., a mental picture or sound, or other sensory experience).

Words differ in their capacity to arouse mental images of things or events. Some words arouse a sensory experience, such as a mental picture or sound, very quickly and easily whereas other words may do so only with difficulty (i.e., after a long delay) or not at all.

The purpose of this experiment is to rate a list of about words (all verbs) as to the ease or difficulty with which they arouse mental images. Any word, that in your estimation, arouses a mental image (i.e., a mental picture or sound, or other sensory experience) very quickly and easily should be given a high imagery rating (at the upper end of the numerical scale). Any word that arouses a mental image with difficulty or not at all should be given a low imagery rating (at the lower end of the numerical scale).

For example think of the word “पीना”. “पीना” would probably arouse an image (e.g., of man drinking glass of water) relatively easily and would be rated as high. “उलझना” (to get confused) would probably do so with difficulty and be rated as low imagery.

Because words tend to make you think of other words as associates, it is important that your ratings not be based on this, and that you judge only the ease with which you get a mental image of an object or event in response to each word. Your imagery ratings will be made on a 1 to 7 scale.

1 - arouses a mental image only with difficulty or not at all
7 - highly imageable - can be imaged quickly and easily

Some words eg.सीना have a noun and verb sense; remember we are considering the imageability of the verb only.

All the words given have to be interpreted in their verb form, in case, same word has multiple grammatical classes. For eg. सीना means “to sew” (verb) as well as “chest” (noun). Only consider the verb form. Please study each word carefully, to make sure you have correctly identified the word, before you rate it.

When making your ratings, try to be as accurate as possible, but do not spend too much time on any one word.

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