|
Thirty-six homophones and 36 nonhomophones were presented randomly to 30 Ss in a single response, free association task. The greater dispersion of the response distributions to homophones than to nonhomophone stimuli as well as the longer response latencies to homophones suggested that the associative meaning of homophones is more ambiguous than other elements of the vocabulary and, consequently, that homophone units may be fruitfully employed in research necessitating the use of such ambiguous stimuli. Several such potential uses were discussed along with possible research aimed towards clarifying the phenomenon of homophones per se, apart from their use as research tools.
|
