The 60 stimuli triples were chosen from an original list of 70 sentence triples created, with matched length and frequencies of the key phrased. The larger set of triples was normed by groups of 51-62 participants (total N = 1021) via CloudResearch for each of the following features: familiarity (subjective ratings of frequency), metaphoricity, imageability, emotional valence, emotional intensity (arousal), complexity, plausibility, and semantic similarity. The frequencies of the key phrases and sentence lengths were also matched. The 60 sentence triples included in the Metaphorm database were selected based on the aggregated norming results and the following criteria:
--All conditions were matched on explicit ratings of emotional valence, emotional intensity, complexity, familiarity, and plausibility
--M & L were rated highly semantically similar
--Sentences in the Metaphor condition were rated significantly more metaphorical than sentences in either of the other two conditions.
--Sentences in the Concrete condition were rated to be more imageable than sentences in the Metaphor or Literal conditions