The age at which words are first learned appears to be more influential in determining the ease of retrieving words from semantic memory than objective frequency, familiarity, imagery, and meaningfulness. To facilitate research on a wider variety of tasks, we present norms for 543 words for age-of-acquisition, imagery, familiarity, and meaningfulness. Most of the words form single-solution anagrams. There are 471 six-letter nouns and 72 five-letter words. Also reported are the means, 80s, and ranges for each dimension and the intercorrelations between dimensions. Intergroup reliabilities ranged from .847 to .982. Recent studies have indicated that the age at which words are first learned is influential in determining the ease of retrieving words from semantic memory. Frequency of usage during childhood was found to predict latency to name category instances more accurately than adult frequency of usage (Loftus & Suppes, 1972). Age-of-acquisition as rated by young adults was found by Carroll and White (1973) to be a more relevant variable than objective frequency in predicting latency to name pictures. Rated age-of-acquisition also predicted the speed and likelihood of solving anagrams more accurately than rated familiarity, objective frequency, imagery, and meaningfulness (Stratton, Jacobus, & Brinley, Note l). The norms reported in this paper provide adult norms on rated age-of-acquisition, rated imagery, rated familiarity, and meaningfulness for 543 words. Two word samples from these norms were used in an earlier study (see Note 1). METHOD Subjects A total of 879 male and female volunteers from introductory psychology classes contributed to the six-letter word norms during the 1973 fall semester and the 1974 spring semester. An additional 204 males and females from the same subject pool contributed to the five-letter norms during the 1974 summer and fall semesters. Different subjects participated in each segment of the study.

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Paired-associate lists with compound stimuli composed of three adjectives which varied along a distinctiveness (D) dimension and single digit responses were presented to 18Ss. The Ss were given 12 learning trials and then a transfer task on which they were asked to recall the co"ect response when each word was presented alone. The results indicated that selection occu"ed along the D dimension.Several investigators have found evidence for cue selection in paired associate learning with compound stimuli. For instance, Jenkins (1963) andPostman &Greenbloom (1967) examined response recall when only one letter from the stimulus trigram was presented and found significant amounts of recall, particularly for the ftrst element. Underwood, Ham, & Eclcstrand (1962) used trigrams and color and found selection of color to be dominant.The basis for selection of the effective stimulus cue in verbal learning situations is important in determining expected responses and the course of learning. This study involves examination of the effects of a variable labeled distinctiveness (D) on cue selection in the paired-associate situation with three words as the compound stimulus.Since words as units differ considerably from letters or trigrams in their attributes it is possible that different factors will be· involved in the selection process. The basis for this study was the hypothesis that a more distinctive word will be selected more frequently than a less distinctive word. D is defmed here as a function of the results of a short term recosnition memory experiment of the sort performed by Shepard & Teghtsoonian (1961). The difference between hits (old words called old) and false alarms (new words called old) was the value taken for D. Furst (1967) showed D to be a potent variable on the stimulus side of paired associated lists when the lists were heterogeneous with respect to the D variable. Since D did not have a significant effect in comparisons across lists which were homogeneous with respect to it the assumption of a selection factor is reasonable. The compound stimulus technique provides one way of testing this.Other attributes of words which have been shown to affect learning are meaningfulness (m) and frequency of usage (u). Values of these attributes for the words used were obtained using Noble's (1952) production technique for m and subjective ratings for u. METHODThe Ss were 18 introductory psychology students at the University of Georgia.They were required to learn six paired-associates using the standard anticipation technique. Each of the six stimuli consisted of three words with one word from each of the D categories. The six high D words (TARDY, ARCTIC, ZEALOUS, JUICY, UNDONE, and RABID) had values ranging from 43 to 45, all six medium D words (DEMURE, LOYAL, ALIVE, OUTER, MASSIVE, and NIMBLE) had the value of 38, while the six low D words (LUSTY, EXTREME, SIMPLE, JAGGED, VALID, and FATAL) had values ranging from 24 to 32. The mean m values for the high, medium and Psychon. Sci., 1968, Vol. 13 (6) low D words were...

While previous research has consistently demonstrated that anagrams with solutionwords of high frequency are easier to solve than anagrams with solution-words of low frequency, the results for solution-word imagery have been contradictory. Experiment I involved the use of four six-item lists which varied factorially on imagery and frequency and were equated for meaningfulness and total bigram-position frequency. Eighteen Ss attempted to solve these anagrams under conditions of distributed practice and 18 Ss under massed practice. Data for solution latency and number of solutions revealed that anagrams were easier to solve if the solution-words were of high imagery or high frequency (ps < .001). Distribution of practice and practice over 24 problems did not influence performance. Experiment n replicated the effects of solution-word imagery and frequency with a different sample of words and with more precise controls (ps < .025). The results were discussed in terms of the processes involved in the storage and retrieval of words from semantic memory and die role that retrieval processes play in solving anagrams.SOLVING ANAGRAMS involves alternating between letter rearrangement, word retrieval, and word-anagram comparison activities (see Johnson, 1972). The major purpose of the present studies was to determine the effects of solution-word frequency and imagery on the ease of retrieving words to solve anagrams.Anagrams and thinking-of-a-word problems are more easily solved if the solutions are high-frequency words than if the solutions are low-frequency words (e.g., Mayzner & Tresselt, 1958;Stratton & Wathen, 1972). This effect is usually attributed to the tendency to retrieve words from memory in an order determined by frequency of experience, with high-frequency words being retrieved before low-frequency words, the spew law of Underwood and Schulz (1960). Also words of very low frequency may never have been stored in memory (Duncan, 1973).The verbal learning literature suggests that word imagery may also influence performance on anagram problems. Several studies nave shown•This is an expanded version of a paper presented at the 1973 meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago. Requests for reprints should be addressed to R.

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