The Oxford English Dictionary is the standard reference work for determining the earliest known instance of the occurrence of a word (its date of entry). Partly in order to facilitate research on the relation between the date of entry and other psychological variables, we gathered normative data on 1,046 words sampled from the Oxford English Dictionary. We present data for scales that measure the imagery, concreteness, goodness, and familiarity values for words. These norms may also be of use to researchers who are not explicitly concerned with words' date of entry, but who wish to sample words from a set that contains a large number of unfamiliar as well as familiar words.

Partly in order to facilitate research on the relation between some standard psychological variables, we gathered normative data on 500 proverbs sampled from the Oxford Dictionary ofEnglish Proverbs (Wilson, 1970). The scales for which we gathered data are imagery, concreteness, goodness, and familiarity. These norms may be of value to researchers who wish to sample linguistic units larger than the word from a set that contains an extensive number of unfamiliar and familiar items. To illustrate the possible uses to which these data may be put, we presented a causal model of the relation between the four variables mentioned above.Proverbs are usually regarded as a part of folk wisdom, a topic which is currently being approached with renewed interest (e.g., Bruner, 1990). Recently, there have been a number of studies of proverbs indicating an interest in their value as a tool for investigating several different psychologically interesting processes (e.g

The interpersonal circumplex is a two-dimensional model of trait descriptive terms. Two fundamental dimensions underly the circle, Affiliation and Dominance. An historicodevelopmental analysis of the circumplex suggests that there should be several aspects of the circumplex which have undergone an historical process of development. Data derived from Wiggins's (1979b) Taxonomy of interpersonal trait descriptive terms is presented suggesting: that the major dimensions of the circumplex emerged before the minor dimensions; that at least one of the positive octants emerged before its negative opposite; that Affiliation emerged before Dominance; that semantically inconsistent octants only emerged after consistent ones; and that prototypical members of an octant emerged before nonprototypical members.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the standard reference work for determining the earliest known instance of the occurrence of a word (Date-of-Entry). Using the OED, we determined Date-of-Entry for the words which constitute the Regressive Imagery Dictionary (RID). Several of the categories have significantly different Dates-of-Entry. These differences can be interpreted by taking a developmental approach to the history of the language. From such an historicodevelopmental standpoint, the differences in Date-of-Entry between categories make perfectly good sense. These findings have implications for future studies of art history using the RID.