Norms for 204 literary and 260 nonliterary metaphors on 10 psychological dimensions

Analyzed 204 literary metaphors selected from works of poetry and 264 nonliterary metaphors generated by the present authors' 10 dimensions representing ratings of comprehensibility, perceived metaphoric qualities, imagery values, familiarity, and tenor-vehicle relatedness. Analyses of the normative data indicated that (a) the mean ratings of the metaphors were reliable; (b) 634 undergraduate raters varied in their reactions to the metaphors; (c) the 10 dimensions correlated substantially with one another; and (d) literary and nonliterary metaphors showed similar patterns for the descriptive and relational statistics examined. Data indicate the need for metaphor researchers to consider multiple attributes if they are to achieve less confounded or factorial variation of theoretically motivated variables.