Normative studies of six characteristics of our knowledge of common activities

Abstract

Six dimensions that are relevant to our knowledge of common activities are introduced and quantified. Twelve component actions in each of 30 activities were chosen. Two of the dimensions examined were the familiarity and frequency of performance of the activities themselves. The other four dimensions-sequence, centrality, distinctiveness, and standardness-are characteristics of the actions within the activities. There was high agreement among subjects on the norms for each dimension. Correlational analyses demonstrate the possibility of choosing actions in such a way as to compare different levels of the dimensions as factors in controlled experiments. The importance of considering these dimensions in interpretations of script or schema experiments is stressed. © 1983 Psychonomic Society, Inc.