Word Association: Verbal Intelligence

Abstract

Three varimax factors in which verbal intelligence loaded were identified for several diverse groups including schizophrenics. Only paradigmatic associates loaded on these factors: general paradigmatic vs faults typical of failures to follow the instructions to give a word, denotative vs idiosyncratic, and connotative-adjectival. Although they were correlated negatively with intelligence, syntagmatic associates formed no cohesive pattern of common variance with intelligence. These relationships were not evident from associates to the familiar unambiguous words of the Kent-Rosanoff list. Highly ambiguous familiar words that have many meanings resulted in material relationships with intelligence. In adults, the type, extent of, and persistence of the childhood syntagmatic to paradigmatic shifts appears to be a function of verbal intelligence.