Normed Metaphor Stimuli
I developed and normed (i.e., verified) 120 high- and low-familiarity metaphor sentences.
Each metaphor sentence is paired with a figurative and literal word target and a literal sentence (matched on word frequency and length). All metaphors and matched literal sentences are in "An X is/was a Y" format (e.g., The class is a sedative).
Three norming experiments were conducted to validate the stimuli set.
Experiment 1: Collect Metaphor Familiarity Ratings
44 undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Chicago rated 274 metaphors on familiarity for course credit.
60 metaphors with the highest average familiarity ratings and 60 metaphors with the lowest average familiarity ratings were selected for the remainder of the norming experiments.
There were no differences in sentence length, topic word (X) length/frequency, or vehicle word (Y) length/frequency between high- and low-familiarity metaphors. There were also no differences between high- and low- matched literal sentences (all ps > .05).
Experiment 2: Generate Figurative and Literal Target Words
127 undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Chicago generated target words for 120 metaphor sentences for course credit.
Figurative and literal target words were matched across high- and low-familiarity metaphors on word frequency and word length.
Experiment 3: Collect Target Relatedness Ratings
58 undergraduates from the University of Illinois at Chicago rated each target-sentence pair on relatedness.
Target words had significantly higher relatedness ratings when paired with the metaphors (related) than the literal (unrelated) sentences (p < .001).