Free-association responses to verbal stimuli of varying meaningfulness as a function of presentation mode

Abstract

The present study contrasted the hierarchy of associations elicited by the 96 dissyllables scaled by Noble and Parker (1960) for meaningfulness ( m ) when these stimuli were received aurally (Cond. A) as opposed to their having been received visually (Cond. V). A total of 200 S s, 100 under visual and 100 under aural conditions, was employed. The following represent the major findings: (a) The commonality (C) between the associations elicited in the two modes was directly related to m with the correlation between C and m being .80; (b) The frequency characteristics of the distributions of associations were similar in the two modes; (c) The degree of overlap among associations to different stimuli was low and appeared to be largely independent of m and mode; (d) Associations beginning with the same first letter as the first syllable of the dissyllable stimulus were given with increasing frequency as m decreased with this trend being more marked in Cond. V than in Cond. A. The results were discussed in terms of their implications for the effects of m and mode via associative mediational processes in paired-associate learning.