The tendency of some Ss to give predominately 1 category of associate in the word-association experiment, regardless of word list, was examined in a series of studies. Earlier findings on such tendencies were confirmed with several samples of college students and with Spanish-speaking Ss. A 4th such tendency, or idiodynamic set, perceptual-referent (Jung's "predication type"), was added to the 3 sets previously described. Evidence was presented for the sets as more generally representing bases for matching word pairs, forming a hierarchy of increasing linguistic sophistication in the order: perceptual referent, object referent, concept referent, and dimension referent. Word-association commonality was discussed as an arbitrary average across several stable subhierarchies.

On 4 successive days 100 normals and 96 schizophrenics were administered a list of 125 words under free-association instructions. From these samples 79 normalschizophrenic pairs were matched for age, education, and vocabulary. Separate orthogonal factor anlyses of each day's performance by 79 normal Ss yielded essentially the same factors. 3 factors were interpreted as representing idiodynamic sets: object-referent, conceptual-referent, and speed. The manner in which these sets facilitated and interfered with mediational processes was demonstrated. Similar analyses of performance by the 79 schizophrenics revealed the same 3 idiodynamic sets. Although the sets were operative in the schizophrenics on all 4 days, the sets were less pre-emptive after the 1st day.

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