Adding volition to word processing: Expected utility norms for 80 thousand English words and multiword expressions

This study examined the concept of word usefulness by analyzing expected utility ratings for over 80,000 English words and multiword expressions. Participants used best-worst ratings to indicate how useful it is to know each word/expression. Our findings show a high level of agreement regarding the usefulness of words and expressions. Stimuli were rated as more useful if they were more frequent, widely known, learned early in life and central to the semantic network. Concreteness had a substantial negative correlation, indicating that abstract words in general received higher utility scores than concrete words. Positive stimuli received slightly lower utility scores than negative stimuli. Expected utility was a good predictor of which words are known to speakers of English as a first and second language, but did not contribute to predicting response times to known words. These findings suggest that expected utility is a variable affecting which words are likely to be learned, but does not affect word processing times (much). The expected utility scores are freely available for research and education.