Marc Brysbaert

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Experimental Psychology

Most current models of research on emotion recognize valence (how pleasant a stimulus is) and arousal (the level of activation or intensity a stimulus elicits) as important components in the classification of affective experiences (Feldman Barrett, 1998; Kuppens, Tuerlinckx, Russell, & Feldman Barrett, 2012). Here we present a set of norms for vale...

This study investigates whether estimates of familiarity, valence, arousal and concreteness based on artificial intelligence (AI) are useful alternatives to word counts and human ratings in Spanish. We replicate and extend previous findings in English and show that GPT-4o is effective in estimating these word features. Validity checks even suggest...

This study investigates the potential of large language models (LLMs) to estimate familiarity of words and multi-word expressions (MWEs). We validated LLM estimates for isolated words using existing human familiarity ratings and found strong correlations. LLM familiarity estimates were found to perform even better in predicting lexical decision and...

This study investigates the potential of large language models (LLMs) to provide accurate estimates of concreteness, valence and arousal for multi-word expressions. Unlike previous artificial intelligence (AI) methods, LLMs can capture the nuanced meanings of multi-word expressions. We systematically evaluated GPT-4o's ability to predict concretene...

This study investigates whether estimates of familiarity, valence, arousal and concreteness based on artificial intelligence (AI) are useful alternatives to word counts and human ratings in Spanish. We replicate and extend previous findings in English and show that GPT-4o is effective in estimating these word features. Validity checks even suggest...

This study investigates whether estimates of familiarity, valence, arousal and concreteness based on artificial intelligence (AI) are useful alternatives to word counts and human ratings in Spanish. We replicate and extend previous findings in English and show that GPT-4o is effective in estimating these word features. Validity checks even suggest...

This study investigates the potential of large language models (LLMs) to estimate familiarity of words and multi-word expressions (MWEs). We validated LLM estimates for isolated words using existing human familiarity ratings and found strong correlations. LLM familiarity estimates were found to perform even better in predicting lexical decisions an...

Word concreteness indicates the degree to which words evoke sensory experiences. Concrete words, like "apple," are easily associated with sensations. Abstract words, like "faith," are more difficult to define through sensory experience. Imageability refers to a word's capacity to evoke nonverbal images. This article reviews the history of compiling...

The Dutch Lexicon Projects consist of four datasets with lexical decision data for Dutch words. The Dutch Lexicon Project 1 (DLP1) has data for 14,000 visually presented Dutch monosyllabic and disyllabic words, including inflected forms. BALDEY provides data for 2,800 spoken words. The Dutch Lexicon Project 2 (DLP2) has data for 30,000 Dutch non-in...

The British Lexicon Project (BLP) is a dataset of lexical decision data for English words of one or two syllables, including all possible inflected forms of the words. It uses British spelling and non-words matched to the real words across all word lengths. BLP findings largely correspond to those of the English Lexicon Project and can be used in t...

This article reviews three large-scale French megastudies investigating word processing. These studies employed various paradigms, including word naming, lexical decision, and perceptual identification, to measure the accuracy and speed of word processing. The primary goal was to examine the effects of variables such word frequency and word length,...

Tulving characterized semantic memory as a vast repository of meaning that underlies language and many other cognitive processes. This perspective on lexical and conceptual knowledge galvanized a new era of research undertaken by numerous fields, each with their own idiosyncratic methods and terminology. For example, “concept” has different meaning...

This study investigates the potential of large language models (LLMs) to estimate familiarity of words and multi-word expressions (MWEs). We validated LLM estimates for isolated words using existing human familiarity ratings and found strong correlations. LLM familiarity estimates were found to perform even better in predicting lexical decisions an...

This study investigates the potential of large language models (LLMs) to provide accurate estimates of concreteness, valence and arousal for multi-word expressions. Unlike previous artificial intelligence (AI) methods, LLMs can capture the nuanced meanings of multi-word expressions. We systematically evaluated ChatGPT-4o's ability to predict concre...

This study investigates the potential of large language models (LLMs) to provide accurate estimates of concreteness, valence and arousal for multi-word expressions. Unlike previous artificial intelligence (AI) methods, LLMs can capture the nuanced meanings of multi-word expressions. We systematically evaluated ChatGPT-4o's ability to predict concre...

This volume, featuring 14 chapters from some of the most forward-thinking scholars applied linguistics, seeks to provide and equip readers with an in-depth and field-specific understanding of OS principles and practices. As evident in the table of contents, the chapters cover a range of topics related to OS. Some are largely conceptual, seeking to...

SUBTLEX frequency norms refer to the use of film subtitles as a new approach to studying word frequency and language processing. The norms are one of the best predictors of language processing, arguably because spoken conversations are an important part of language input. Subtitle frequencies are available for many languages and can be obtained qui...

Alfred Binet is widely recognized as the father of the intelligence test, but many textbooks on psychology and intelligence testing contain inaccuracies about his work. This article corrects two common errors. First, the French government did not ask Binet to develop the test. Binet was part of a group of people trying to prevent special education...

The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide...

This study examined the construct validity of performance-based emotion recognition tests. We recruited 227 adults (30-60 years old) through Prolific to complete four emotion recognition tasks in addition to measures of self-reported emotion recognition, crystallized intelligence, social confidence, loneliness/well-being, interest in people versus...

This article challenges the wide-spread practice of using Hu and Bentler's (1999) cut-off values (CFI > .95, TLI > .95, RMSEA < .06, SRMR < .08) as the sole indicator of good test fit. Two underlying assumptions are questioned: (1) that these criteria apply universally and (2) that very high CFI/TLI and low RMSEA/SRMR represent optimal fit. An excl...

Previous research has shown that languages from nearby families are easier to learn as second languages (L2) than languages from more distant families, attributing this difference to the presence of shared elements between the native language (L1) and L2. Building on this idea, we hypothesised that suffixes present in L1 might facilitate complex wo...

Experimental psychology is witnessing an increase in research on individual differences, which requires the development of new tasks that can reliably assess variations among participants. To do this, cognitive researchers need statistical methods that many researchers have not learned during their training. The lack of expertise can pose challenge...

This is a revision of a ms previously published here. The reviewers thought the ms was good, but lacked focus and clarity. This encouraged us to think again about the standardized effect size. The d statistic we tried was a bit of a red herring. The same was true for partial eta squared. So instead of repeating inferior existing solutions, we decid...

This is a list of word megastudies and eye movement corpora, which I catered on my website. I include it here, because the website had to be taken down and I don't find time to rebuild it.

This article introduces CYP-LEX, a large-scale lexical database derived from books popular with children and young people in the United Kingdom. CYP-LEX includes 1,200 books evenly distributed across three age bands (7-9, 10-12, 13+) and comprises over 70 million tokens and over 105,000 types. For each word in each age band, we provide its raw and...

Secondary analysis of existing datasets of eye movements in reading is a valuable tool for vocabulary research because it allows researchers to examine word recognition in an authentic context. We argue that such secondary analysis is an important addition to new experimental studies and existing mega-studies because it examines word recognition in...

The growing interest in individual differences within experimental psychology has led to an increased need for familiarity with statistical methods that many researchers did not receive during their training. This lack of familiarity can be challenging not only when designing studies but also when evaluating them as researchers, reviewers or editor...

People are able to perceive emotions in the eyes of others and can therefore see emotions when individuals wear face masks. Research has been hampered by the lack of a good test to measure basic emotions in the eyes. In two studies respectively with 358 and 200 participants, we developed a test to see anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and su...

Alfred Binet is widely recognized as the father of the intelligence test, but many textbooks on psychology and intelligence testing contain inaccuracies about his work. This article corrects two common errors. First, the French government did not ask Binet to develop the test. Binet was part of a group of people trying to prevent special education...

Alfred Binet is widely known as the father of the intelligence test, but many textbooks on psychology and intelligence testing contain inaccuracies about his work. This article corrects three common misconceptions. First, the French government did not ask Binet to develop the test. Binet was part of a group of people who were trying to prevent spec...

This article introduces CYP-LEX, a large-scale lexical database derived from books popular with children and young people in the United Kingdom. CYP-LEX includes 1,200 books evenly distributed across three age bands (7–9, 10–12, 13+) and comprises over 70 million tokens and over 105,000 types. For each word in each age band, we provide its raw and...

Emotion is a fundamental aspect of human life and therefore is critically encoded in language. To facilitate research into the encoding of emotion in language and how emotion associations affect language processing, we present a new set of emotion norms for over 24,000 Dutch words. The emotion norms include ratings of two key dimensions of emotion:...

In this tutorial, we provide guidelines for conducting linear mixed effects (LME) analysis for simple designs. First, we discuss how LME analyses compare to traditional t-tests, ANOVAs and linear regression when participants are the only random variable. Then we extend the discussion to studies in which researchers want to generalize across both pa...

In this tutorial, we provide guidelines for conducting linear mixed effects (LME) analysis for simple designs. First, we discuss how LME analyses compare to traditional t-tests, ANOVAs and linear regression when participants are the only random variable. Then we extend the discussion to studies in which researchers want to generalize across both pa...

People are able to perceive emotions in the eyes of others and can therefore see emotions when individuals wear face masks. Research has been hampered by the lack of a good test to measure basic emotions in the eyes. In two studies with 358 and 200 participants, we developed a test to see anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise in ima...

People are able to perceive emotions in the eyes of others and can therefore see emotions when individuals wear face masks. Research has been hampered by the lack of a good test to measure basic emotions in the eyes. In two studies with 358 and 200 participants, we developed a test to see anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise in ima...

Emotion is a fundamental aspect of human life and therefore is critically encoded in language. To facilitate research into the encoding of emotion in language and how emotion associations affect language processing, we present a new set of emotion norms for over 24, 000 Dutch words. The emotion norms include ratings of two key dimensions of emotion...

This is the first chapter of the new edition of our textbook. You can preview the book at https://www.routledge.com/Fundamentals-of-Cognition/Eysenck-Brysbaert/p/book/9781032471310

Silent reading often involves phonological encoding of the text in addition to orthographic processing. The nature of the phonological code is debated, however: Is it an abstract code or does it contain information about the pronunciation of the visual stimulus? To answer this question, we investigated the relationship between articulation speed an...

We investigated the extent to which language tests developed for native speakers (L1) can be used with advanced speakers of a second language (L2). We compared the performance of Dutch–English bilinguals with that of native English speakers on a series of English language tests, looking at vocabulary knowledge, crystallized intelligence, reading co...

We investigated the extent to which language tests developed for native speakers (L1) can be used with advanced speakers of a second language (L2). We compared the performance of Dutch–English bilinguals with that of native English speakers on a series of English language tests, looking at vocabulary knowledge, crystallized intelligence, reading co...

This article presents the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) project that offers data on English reading and listening comprehension from 7,338 university-level advanced learners and native speakers of English representing 19 countries. The database also includes estimates of reading rate and seven component skills of English, including vocabulary, spel...

A great majority of people around the world know more than one language. So, how does knowing one language affect the learning and use of additional languages? The question of cross-language influences is the focus of this book. Do bilinguals hear, understand, and produce language and meaning differently because of the languages they speak? How wel...

A great majority of people around the world know more than one language. So, how does knowing one language affect the learning and use of additional languages? The question of cross-language influences is the focus of this book. Do bilinguals hear, understand, and produce language and meaning differently because of the languages they speak? How wel...

Semantic gender norms are presented for 24,037 Dutch words. Eighty participants rated 6,017 words each on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from feminine to masculine. Each word was rated by 10 male and 10 female participants. The collected norms show high reliability and correlate well with similar norms in English. We show that semantic gender is di...

Semantic gender norms are presented for 24,037 Dutch words. Eighty participants rated 6,017 words each on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from feminine to masculine. Each word was rated by 10 male and 10 female participants. The collected norms show high reliability and correlate well with similar norms in English. We show that semantic gender is di...

Silent reading often involves phonological encoding of the text in addition to orthographic processing. A question related to the phonological code concerns its richness: Is it an abstract code or does it contain information about the pronunciation of the visual stimulus? To answer this question, we investigated the relationship between articulatio...

Concreteness describes the degree to which a word's meaning is understood through perception and action. Many studies use the Brysbaert et al. (2014) concreteness ratings to investigate language processing and text analysis. However, these ratings are limited to English single words and a few two-word expressions. Increasingly, attention is focused...

Morphological awareness contributes to vocabulary acquisition and reading in bilingual children who learned English after their native language. In line with these considerations, we further investigated L2 processing in late adult bilinguals where questions related to morphology need to be clarified. French-English speakers (N = 92) were assessed...

This chapter considers key questions and issues concerning the role of phonology in silent reading. It reviews classic findings that point to phonological effects in reading. Stronger evidence for the involvement of assembled phonology in visual word recognition in English comes from experiments using masked priming. There are two ways in which wri...

We present five studies aimed at developing an L1 vocabulary test for English-speaking university students. Such a test is useful as an indicator of crystallized intelligence and because vocabulary size correlates well with reading comprehension. In the first study, we tested 100 written words with four answer alternatives, based on Nation's Vocabu...

We investigated how efficient item translation is in a challenging language testing situation. We made Spanish translations of recently developed English tests for high-achieving L1 adults (mainly university students), who are a homogeneous group and therefore a clear example of range restriction. The set included a vocabulary test, a general knowl...

The Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences (BAPS) is a learned society founded in 1947. Its mission is to unite people in Belgium interested in the development and application of psychological sciences. It does so through the publication of Psychologica Belgica, the organisation of an annual scientific meeting, the award of prizes, initiati...

In this study, we compared the performance of Dutch-English bilinguals with that of native English speakers on a series of language tests, looking at vocabulary knowledge, crystallized intelligence, reading comprehension, and reading speed. In line with previous studies, we found that advanced L2 speakers know fewer words than native speakers and t...

Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich be...

Concreteness describes the degree to which a word’s meaning is understood through perception and action. The Brysbaert et al. (2014) concreteness ratings have provided insight into language processing and text analysis. However, these ratings are limited to English single words and a few two-word expressions. Increasingly, attention is focused on t...

Short language proficiency tests are often needed for low-stakes assessment in education and research, particularly in second language settings. Vocabulary tests are a good candidate; they give rapid, useful estimates of language proficiency. Ideally, several formats are available so that language proficiency can be measured independently of the me...

Scientific studies of language behavior need to grapple with a large diversity of languages in the world and, for reading, a further variability in writing systems. Yet, the ability to form meaningful theories of reading is contingent on the availability of cross-linguistic behavioral data. This paper offers new insights into aspects of reading beh...

In the original version of this paper, the title was incorrect.

We present five studies aimed at developing a new vocabulary test for university students. Such a test is useful as an indication of crystallized intelligence and because vocabulary size correlates well with reading comprehension. In the first study, a list of 100 words based on Nation’s Vocabulary Size Test was presented to 195 participants and co...

We present five studies aimed at developing a new vocabulary test for university students. Such a test isuseful as an indication of crystallized intelligence and because vocabulary size correlates well withreading comprehension. In the first study, a list of 100 words based on Nation’s Vocabulary Size Test waspresented to 195 participants and compa...

Little research has been done about the neural substrate of the sublexical level of Chinese word recognition. In particular, it is unclear how radicals participate in Chinese word processing. We compared two measures of radical combinability, position-general radical combinability (GRC) and position-specific radical combinability (SRC) depending on...

Internationally, an increase in the numbers of students with dyslexia in higher education is noticeable. Consequently, more and more information has been collected on the cognitive profile of these students compared to their non-disabled peers. In this chapter an overview is provided on the cognitive functioning of this group of students and the im...

Little information is available on the study outcome of students with dyslexia in higher education. Data were collected from a group of 99 first generation students with dyslexia and a matched control group of 89 students. Results on two self-report questionnaires, a personality questionnaire (NEO-PI-R) and a study strategies questionnaire (LASSI),...

In this chapter I summarize the evidence that phonology is involved in visual word recognition and text reading. This is even the case in groups with suboptimal access to spoken language (such as people born deaf and students learning a second language in school). The phonological code helps to make reading fluent, as suggested by the finding that...

In this chapter I summarize the evidence that phonology is involved in visual word recognition and text reading. This is even the case in groups with suboptimal access to spoken language (such as people born deaf and students learning a second language in school). The phonological code helps to make reading fluent, as suggested by the finding that...

Is it possible that silent reading rate is the same as the most efficient listening rate? The hypothesis has been formulated in the past, but never got much traction because silent reading is almost twice as fast as typical speech. On the other hand, several studies have shown that listening comprehension retains high quality for spoken materials p...

We present written naming norms from 153 young adult Dutch speakers for 1397 photographs (the BOSS set; see Brodeur, Dionne-Dostie, Montreuil, & Lepage, 2010; Brodeur, Guérard, & Bouras, 2014). From the norming study, we report the preferred (modal) name, alternative names, name agreement, and average object agreement. In addition, the data base in...

Short language proficiency tests are often needed for low-stakes assessment in education and research, particularly in second language settings. Vocabulary tests are a good candidate; they give rapid, useful estimates of language proficiency. Ideally, several formats are available so that language proficiency can be measured independently of the me...

Samenvatting Tussen 2009 en 2015 ging aan de Universiteit Gent een grootschalig, longitudinaal onderzoek van start naar studeren met dyslexie in het hoger. Het doel was een breed beeld te krijgen van studenten met dyslexie die starten in het hoger onderwijs in Vlaanderen. Daarnaast werden deze studenten gedurende 3 academiejaren gemonitord om een b...

At first sight, it is a no-brainer to make publicly funded research findings freely available to everyone. Ever increasing pay walls are unsustainable and publishers have been pushing their luck in the last decades. On the other hand, free lunches do not exist either. It is unrealistic for researchers to expect that their manuscripts can be evaluat...

Previous research in English has suggested that reading rate predictions can be improved considerably by taking average word length into account. In the present study, we investigated whether the same regularity holds for Dutch. The Dutch language is very similar to English, but words are on average half a letter longer: 5.1 letters per word (in no...

Previous research in English has suggested that reading rate predictions can be improved considerably by taking average word length into account. In the present study, we investigated whether the same regularity holds for Dutch. The Dutch language is very similar to English, but words are on average half a letter longer: 5.1 letters per word (in no...

A second language can be learned inside and outside the classroom. In this study we investigated the English and French vocabulary knowledge of 110 Dutch-speaking children (age 10–12), who received 100 hours of instruction in French, whereas their contact with English came from out-of-school exposure only. We examined the role of individual differe...

Emotions play a fundamental role in language learning, use, and processing. Words denoting positivity account for a larger part of the lexicon than words denoting negativity, and they also tend to be used more frequently, a phenomenon known as positivity bias. However, language experience changes over an individual's lifetime, making the examinatio...