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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Exp Child Psychol. 2010 Jun 12;107(2):137–154. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2010.04.013

Table 1.

The Cornell/Cortland Emotion Lists

Valence/arousal Property
Mean Valence Mean arousal Mean BAS
List CD List CD
Negative/high
Cold 5.30 4.02 4.50 5.19 .23
Hurt 2.96 1.9 5.72 5.85 .21
Thief 3.61 2.13 5.66 6.89 .10
Spider 4.64 3.33 5.16 5.71 .16
Dead 4.18 1.94 4.94 5.73 .11
Anger 3.73 2.85 7.10 7.17 .16
Needle 4.48 3.82 4.88 5.36 .20
 Grand means 4.27 3.09 5.27 5.90 .16
Positive/High
God 6.25 8.15 5.58 5.95 .23
Baby 6.14 8.22 5.06 5.53 .18
Love 7.10 8.72 4.82 6.44 .17
Music 6.14 8.13 4.54 5.32 .18
City 5.40 6.03 4.98 5.24 .14
Beach 6.78 8.03 5.13 5.53 .13
Hug 6.94 8.00 4.73 5.53 .11
Pretty 6.29 7.75 4.99 6.03 .11
 Grand means 6.38 7.88 4.98 5.70 .16
Negative/low:
Sick 3.91 1.9 5.04 4.29 .26
Fat 5.54 2.28 4.55 4.81 .13
Shy 5.00 4.64 4.98 3.77 .14
Dirt 4.85 4.17 4.39 3.76 .21
Board 5.75 4.82 4.99 3.36 .13
Trash 4.15 2.67 4.43 4.16 .14
Glass 5.73 4.75 4.66 4.27 .13
Fall 4.59 4.31 4.94 4.70 .11
 Grand means 4.94 3.69 4.75 4.14 .16
Postive/low
Soft 5.77 7.12 4.40 4.63 .18
Green 5.28 6.18 4.26 4.28 .09
Nice 6.36 6.55 5.19 4.38 .09
Sleep 6.12 7.20 3.70 2.80 .19
Bird 6.51 7.27 4.47 3.17 .39
Grass 6.31 6.12 4.57 4.14 .15
Fish 6.07 6.04 5.30 4.00 .17
River 6.25 6.85 4.42 4.51 .15
 Grand means 6.08 6.67 4.54 4.00 .18

Note. List = the 15 words on each list, CD = the critical distractor for each list, BAS = mean backward associative strength from the 15 list words to the critical distractor for each list, as computed from Nelson, McEvoy, and Schreiber’s (1999) norms of word association. For the 15 list words, some of the words on each list are not available in existing word norms for valence and arousal (Bradley & Lang, 1999; Toglia & Battig, 1978). The tabled means for valence and arousal of list words are therefore based on the words that are available in these norms.