Statistical and methodological problems with concreteness and other semantic variables: A list memory experiment case study

The purpose of this article is to highlight problems with a range of semantic psycholinguistic variables (concreteness, imageability, individual modality norms, and emotional valence) and to provide a way of avoiding these problems. Focusing on concreteness, I show that for a large class of words in the Brysbaert, Warriner, and Kuperman (Behavior Research Methods 46: 904–911, 2013) concreteness norms, the mean concreteness values do not reflect the judgments that actual participants made. This problem applies to nearly every word in the middle of the concreteness scale. Using list memory experiments as a case study, I show that many of the “abstract” stimuli in concreteness experiments are not unequivocally abstract. Instead, they are simply those words about which participants tend to disagree. I report three replications of list memory experiments in which the contrast between concrete and abstract stimuli was maximized, so that the mean concreteness values were accurate reflections of participants’ judgments. The first two experiments did not produce a concreteness effect. After I introduced an additional control, the third experiment did produce a concreteness effect. The article closes with a discussion of the implications of these results, as well as a consideration of variables other than concreteness. The sensorimotor experience variables (imageability and individual modality norms) show the same distribution as concreteness. The distribution of emotional valence scores is healthier, but variability in ratings takes on a special significance for this measure because of how the scale is constructed. I recommend that researchers using these variables keep the standard deviations of the ratings of their stimuli as low as possible

Worry, problem elaboration and suppression of imagery: the role of concreteness

Both lay concept and scientific theory claim that worry may be helpful for defining and analyzing problems. Recent studies, however, indicate that worrisome problem elaborations are less concrete than worry-free problem elaborations. This challenges the problem solving view of worry because abstract problem analyses are unlikely to lead to concrete problem solutions. Instead the findings support the avoidance theory of worry which claims that worry suppresses aversive imagery. Following research findings in the dual-coding framework [Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston; Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: a dual coding approach. New York: Oxford University Press.], the present article proposes that reduced concreteness may play a central role in the understanding of worry. First, reduced concreteness can explain how worry reduces imagery. Second, it offers an explanation why worrisome problem analyses are unlikely to arrive at solutions. Third, it provides a key for the understanding of worry maintenance

Worrying Leads to Reduced Concreteness of Problem Elaborations: Evidence for the Avoidance Theory of Worry

Both lay concept and scientific theory have embraced the view that nonpathological worry may be helpful for defining and analyzing problems. To evaluate the quality of problem elaborations, concreteness is a key variable. Two studies with nonclinical student samples are presented in which participants elaborated topics associated with different degrees of worry. In Study 1, participants' elaborations were assessed using problem elaboration charts; in Study 2, they were assessed using catastrophizing interviews. When participants' problem elaborations were rated for concreteness, both studies showed an inverse relationship between degree of worry and concreteness: The more participants worried about a given topic the less concrete was the content of their elaboration. The results challenge the view that worry may promote better problem analyses. Instead they conform to the view that worry is a cognitive avoidance response

Strong lensing in the Einstein-Straus solution

We analyse strong lensing in the Einstein-Straus solution with positive cosmological constant. For concreteness we compare the theory to the light deflection of the lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables. To the memory of J\"urgen Ehlers v2 contains a note added during publication in GRG and less typo

Perturbation theory by the moment method and point-group symmetry

We analyze earlier applications of perturbation theory by the moment method (also called inner product method) to anharmonic oscillators. For concreteness we focus on two-dimensional models with symmetry $C_{4v}$ and $C_{2v}$ and reveal the reason why some of those earlier treatments proved unsuitable for the calculation of the perturbation corrections for some excited states. Point-group symmetry enables one to predict which states require special treatment

A concreteness judgment of words

PURPOSE: To describe the judgement of the concreteness of a set of 162 Brazilian Portuguese words, prior to the elaboration of a speech recognition test, as well as to verify the influence of variables such as the frequency of occurrence of the words and age and undergraduate program year of the participants on the concreteness ratings. METHODS: Fifty undergraduate Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology students from a public university rated the concreteness of a set of 162 words using a seven-point scale where the lowest concreteness degree was represented by number one and the highest by number seven. Participants were free to choose any number in the scale. RESULTS: The results showed a tri-modal distribution of values, suggesting the classification of three categories, according to the concreteness rating. The low concreteness category ranged from 1.76 to 3.45; the medium concreteness category, from 3.46 to 4.95; and the high concreteness rating, from 4.96 to 6.70. Positive correlation was found between the concreteness rating and the coefficient of variation, whereby the higher the rating attributed to a word, the lesser variation in the responses. No significant correlation was found between concreteness ratings and the frequency of occurrence of words. The influence of age and undergraduate year was significant for some correlations. CONCLUSION: Results showed three concreteness categories, and suggest that concreteness can be considered an independent attribute of words, since their frequency of occurrence, as well as participants' age and undergraduate program year did not influence the ratings attributed. The words classified in the high concreteness category were subsequently used for the elaboration of a speech recognition test.OBJETIVO: Descrever o julgamento de concretude de um conjunto de 162 palavras da Língua Portuguesa, visando a elaboração de um teste de reconhecimento de fala, bem como verificar a influência de variáveis como frequência de ocorrência das palavras, idade e série do curso de graduação dos participantes neste julgamento. MÉTODOS: Cinquenta estudantes universitários de um curso de Fonoaudiologia de uma universidade pública julgaram 162 palavras quanto à concretude, por meio de uma escala de sete pontos, sendo o menor grau de concretude representado pelo número um e o grau de concretude máximo, representado pelo número sete. Foi permitido ao sujeito escolher qualquer ponto da escala. RESULTADOS: Os resultados mostraram uma distribuição tri-modal, sugerindo que as palavras fossem classificadas em três categorias quanto ao grau de concretude. A faixa de julgamento das palavras de baixa concretude variou de 1,76 a 3,45, as de média concretude, na faixa de 3,46 a 4,95 e as de alta concretude, de 4,96 e até 6,70. Houve correlação positiva entre o grau de concretude das palavras e o coeficiente de variação de forma que, quanto maior a nota atribuída para a palavra, menor foi a variação de respostas. Não ocorreu correlação significativa entre a frequência de ocorrência das palavras e o julgamento de concretude. A influência da idade e da série do curso de graduação no julgamento foi significativa para algumas correlações. CONCLUSÃO: Os resultados revelaram três categorias quanto ao grau de concretude e sugerem que a concretude pode ser considerada um atributo independente das palavras, uma vez que a frequência de ocorrência das palavras, bem como a idade e a série do curso de graduação dos participantes não influenciou o julgamento de concretude. As palavras categorizadas com alto grau de concretude foram utilizadas em etapas posteriores da elaboração de um teste de reconhecimento de fala.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Departamento de Fonoaudiologia Programa de Pós-graduação (Doutorado) em Distúrbios da Comunicação HumanaUniversidade de Brasília Programa de Pós-graduação em LinguísticaUniversidade Federal de Minas Gerais Faculdade de Letras Programa de Pós-graduação em Estudos LinguísticosUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Departamento de FonoaudiologiaUNIFESP, Depto. de Fonoaudiologia Programa de Pós-graduação (Doutorado) em Distúrbios da Comunicação HumanaUNIFESP, Depto. de FonoaudiologiaSciEL

The Latent Structure of Dictionaries

How many words (and which ones) are sufficient to define all other words? When dictionaries are analyzed as directed graphs with links from defining words to defined words, they reveal a latent structure. Recursively removing all words that are reachable by definition but that do not define any further words reduces the dictionary to a Kernel of about 10%. This is still not the smallest number of words that can define all the rest. About 75% of the Kernel turns out to be its Core, a Strongly Connected Subset of words with a definitional path to and from any pair of its words and no word’s definition depending on a word outside the set. But the Core cannot define all the rest of the dictionary. The 25% of the Kernel surrounding the Core consists of small strongly connected subsets of words: the Satellites. The size of the smallest set of words that can define all the rest (the graph’s Minimum Feedback Vertex Set or MinSet) is about 1% of the dictionary, 15% of the Kernel, and half-Core, half-Satellite. But every dictionary has a huge number of MinSets. The Core words are learned earlier, more frequent, and less concrete than the Satellites, which in turn are learned earlier and more frequent but more concrete than the rest of the Dictionary. In principle, only one MinSet’s words would need to be grounded through the sensorimotor capacity to recognize and categorize their referents. In a dual-code sensorimotor-symbolic model of the mental lexicon, the symbolic code could do all the rest via re-combinatory definition