Abstract

In the present study the effect of background .on the evaluations of 15 quantitative common words and phrases were investigated with 12 background numbers. One hundred high school boys were asked to estimate the stimulus words and phrases in each background, and followings are the main findings; 1. In general, the meaning of the stimulus words and phrases decreased, as the background increased (nine out of 15). 2. In six words, the meaning was constant over a fairly wide range of background and these words and phrases were not only those, close to the extreme evaluations, but also those situated near the AL in the stimulus series of each background. This is contrary to the expectation of Hselson et al. (1957).