Specifications of the experimental words with standard deviations in parentheses.

Ratings for the following factors were based on separate 100-point scales (low to high): Concreteness (abstract to concrete), Semantic Size (small to large), Arousal (unarousing to arousing), Raw Valence (negative to positive), and Age of Acquisition (early to late). Absolute Valence was calculated via the following transformations: (a) shifting the 0 to 100 scale to a −50 to +50 scale (to more appropriately represent valence); (b) taking the absolute value of each rating (resulting in a 50-point scale); and (c) doubling each value to obtain a 100-point scale (from low to high unsigned valence). Word Frequency is expressed in occurrences per million and Word Length in number of letters.