Contrast effects in verbal output

Abstract

Ss' freely constructed descriptions of several photographs, showing posed emotional expressions, were partly dependent on the array of contextual stimuli (other photographs) that appeared on the same page. Ss who were assigned to a predominantly pleasant array of photographs produced the least pleasant descriptive passages, followed by those in an unbiased (full range) condition, and finally, those Ss who were assigned to an unpleasant context, whose descriptions were the most pleasant of all three groups. This experiment suggests that when A communicates with B concerning some external referent, the meaning that he conveys may be significantly affected by the context surrounding his intended referent.