SENTENCE PROCESSING ASSESSED THROUGH INTRASENTENCE WORD ASSOCIATIONS

In 2 experiments 35 and 80 undergraduates, respectively, learned a sentence and were then given individual words from the sentence as stimuli for word association, with the other words in the sentence as possible responses. In Exp. I, a string of English words, when given 2 different structures through the use of appropriate context, gave 2 different patterns of word associations corresponding to the differences in underlying structure. In Exp. II, sentences with different surface structures but the same underlying structure gave similar patterns of intrasentence word associations. Results indicate that the deep structure of sentences was the most important factor in determining the organization that a speaker gives to a sentence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.