List Task and a Cognitive Salience Index

Abstract

The list task and its two parameters (term frequency and its mean position in the lists) are discussed here. A new simple cognitive salience index, S= F/(N mP), that combines the two list task parameters is presented together with the procedure for its calculation. The cognitive salience index is normed to vary between 1 and 0. The basic terms in every domain are the most salient. The salience index of the ideal most salient term has the figure 1 and that of the term not mentioned at all the value is 0. The cognitive salience index gives comparable results between different investigations, as it does not depend on the length of the individual lists. The cognitive salience index is compared with some earlier salience indices.

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