In this article we present a standardized set of 260 pictures for use in experiments investigating differences and similarities in the processing of pictures and words. The pictures are black-and-white line drawings executed according to a set of rules that provide consistency of pictorial representation. The pictures have been standardized on four variables of central relevance to memory and cognitive processing: name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity. The intercorrelations among the four measures were low, suggesting that they are indices of different attributes of the pictures. The concepts were selected to provide exemplars from several widely studied semantic categories. Sources of naming variance, and mean familiarity and complexity of the exemplars, differed significantly across the set of categories investigated. The potential significance of each of the normative variables to a number of semantic and episodic memory tasks is discussed.
{"name agreement": "Subjects were instructed to identify each picture as briefly and unambiguously as possible by writing only one name, the first name that came to mind.", "image agreement": "They were told that a name could consist of more than one word. Specific instructions, designed to elucidate the sources of naming failures, were also given.", "familiarity": "Because familiarity has been shown to have such important effects on various memory and cognitive processing tasks, we had subjects rate the familiarity of each pictured object.", "visual complexity": "Finally, because visual complexity may affect such variables as naming latencies, tachistoscopic recognition thresholds, and perhaps memorability, we had subjects rate the visual complexity of each picture."}