Value and meaning beyond the first word associations! - Springer Link

Value and meaning beyond the first word associations! M. E. Tresselt and

~I.

S. Mayzner

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Abstract In order to study two variables in word associates, i. e., value and meaning continuum, a total of 261 Ss were tested on a 100-stimulus word list where a rating-scale value for the belongingness to the concept "economic" for each word had been established. Three groups of Ss were tested for: IA the first associate only; IB the second associate only; and II for both first and second -associates. A fourth group (N = 35) gave 10-serial word responses to 8 selected stimulus words. The results indicate that the first associates are more strongly associated in value to the original words than the second associations and there is a decreasing rated value from original to first to second associates.' Further, associations are p1"oduced serially in a meaningful way in varying strengths to the original word. Problem In making use of primary word associations, experimenters have been able to establish principles of verbal learning, memory, etc. Even the less frequent associations have been utilized in assessing the principles when low-value bonds formed part of the independent variables being tested. However, there are at leat two unknown attributes in the word-association technique as it is now employed. One attribute is the continuum of meaningfulness of the original word, and the other the value on that same continuum of the response word. For example, "table" as a stimulus-word in the Kent-Rosanoff evokes "chair" as a response. What is the association? Could it be "table" as a piece of furniture is associated with "chair" as a piece of furniture or is "table" a verb related to putting aside the discussion of a motion producing "chair" as a verb meaning to preside over a meeting? Pursaing this line of reasoning even further, would a second association required of the subject continue along the same value series or would there be a shift from one level to another? Would, for example, table-chair as a primary furniture response be followed by table-wood or would the subject giving table-chair as furniture then give table-motion, switching to another type of concept? Two hypotheses were formulated on the basis of this thinking: (a) If a stimulus word had a very high value as belonging to a given concept, the first response given in association will have a value similar in direction to the original word, but of a weaker absolute value. (b) If a second or more associations

P,,),chon. Sci., 1964, Vol. 1.

are required of the subject to the same stimulus word, the further associates will be along the same continuum as the initiating word but of even weaker strength than the first associate. '\pparatus and Procedure The stimulus material consisted of a list of 100 words which had been scaled in terms of belongingness to the concept "economic" (Tresselt & Mayzner, 1959). The words, which ranged from 1 to 7 on a 7-point scale, were presented in random order orally. The Ss were asked to respond as fast as they could to the stimulus word with the first word that occurred to them. There were three experimental groups. Group I consisted of two sub-groups: IA (N = 100) was just asked for the first word that occurred to them in response to the stimulus word; IB (N = 100) was asked to repress the first word and only give the second word response. Group II (N = 61) was asked to write the first response on one data sheet and the second response on a second sheet. Group III (N = 35) was asked to give 10 responses to each of 8 selected stimulus words, i. e., invest (scale value = 6.54); consumption (6.36); college (3.98); coal (4.07); judgment (4.05); drive (3.89); rich (5.10) and finance (6.67). Directly following the completion of their tasks, the Ss were asked to write down their ratings of the response word or words in terms of how strongly the words belonged to the concept "economic." A rating of 1 was to be given if the S felt the word did not belong to the category "economic" or belonged to a very minute degree, through the various ratings to a rating of 7, given if a word belonged very strongly or completely to the concept "economic." R ... slllt" The mean value of the stimulus words for the concept economic was 4.16. The first associates for Group IA averaged 3.60; the average associates for Group IB was 3.44. For Group II, the response averages were 3.24 and 3.07 respectively. Since the stimulus-words varied in their strengths of belongingness, it was decided to group the stimuluswords in tens from the lowest values to the highest values. The correlations of the stimulus word values and response word values are presented in Table 1. The correlations of the stimulus-word scale value and the first response word values were more positive in almost all instances than the correlations of the stimulus word scale values and the second response word values. The results were not uniform, however.

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Table 1. Correlations between Stimulus Word-Values and Response Word- Values Stimulus

Words

Lowest ten

1

2

3

4

2

6

7

8

2

IA

+.97

+.47

+.36

-.09

+.41

-.05

-.23

+.89

-.35

+.34

&IB

+.36

+.41

+.08

-.12

+.29

-.34

-.39

+.93

-.03

+.43

&

10

&

II-1

+.73

+.63

+.28

-.05

+.18

-.19

-.02

+.78

-.32

+.76

&

II-2

+.41

+.58

-.09

-.11

+.53

-.19

-.05

+.65

-.50

+.76

In the lowest scale values, a tendency existed for the average response value to ' be a little higher than the original stimulus word value, i. e., original value for Group IA = 1.74, IB = 1.89; for Group II-I = 1.78, Group U-2 = 1.78. This rise may be attributed to the implicit mental set that existed within the list of stimulus-words, that is, being surrounded by highly economic words, these low value words may have been perceived differently. To answer the second hypothesis, a break-down of all responses was made and it was found that there seemed to be a communality of thought patterns from the first to second response. This tendency was most clearly revealed in the data of Group III wherein, for example, consumption elicited such responses as "tuberculosis-illness" for one person; "consumersupermarket-goods-services" for another; "eat-fooduse" for still another, etc. The frequency of any given response seems to vary also in terms of the ideaclustering. The response "money" to the stimulus word

204

highest ten

"investment" was found to be given by 24 of the 35 Ss as a first response; once as a second response; but "stocks" as a response to "investment" appeared once as a first response and 14 times as a second response, 7 times as a third response and dropping to not more than once in the several positions thereafter. Since there are differences in the probability of any given word being produced in a word association test as a first and as a second response, a review of the weighting of any response word might be made, especially in learning and retention situations. Relerenee TRESSELT, M. E. & MAYZNER, M. S. A further study in the consistency of judgments in categorizing verbal material. J. Psychol., 1959, 47, 337-341. Note 1. This study was supported in part by a grant made to M. E. Tresselt by the New York University Arts and Sciences Research Fund.

Psychon. Sci., 1964, Vol. I.