The subjective estimation of relative word frequency

Abstract

Experiments reported here demonstrate the relationship between measures of relative word frequency in terms of (a) frequency counts of textual material and (b) subjective scaling procedures. With two separate subjective scaling techniques—magnitude estimation (ME) and multiple rank orders (MRO)—it was found that, with respect to the relationship of the subjective scales to direct criterion measures, the ME approach yielded scales for which the power law provided the best fit. For the MRO scales, however, a logarithmic formulation was most appropriate.