Abstract
Attention is drawn to the need for investigation of the possible effects of context upon objective measures of meaningfulness of words in verbal behavior research. Following a few critical observations on the derivation and limitations of the concept of meaningfulness and its measurement, three specific and testable hypotheses are stated: (a) There will be a change in the average number of associations to a word from a lone presentation to a presentation of the same word in a sequential context of other words. (b) There will be a significant difference in total variance of responses to an associative test on a word in a random context versus the same word presented in a grammatical context. (c) There will be significant differences in Semantic Differential profiles of the same word presented in random versus grammatical contexts.
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