Alternative Procedure To Evaluate Semantic Classification

Two experiments were performed to assess the validity of two rank-ordering procedures for determining semantic associations. The experiments permitted determination of whether performance of physical-placement, rank-ordering tasks yielded similar results as traditional semantic categorization procedures (e.g. measuring priming effects and reaction times). Participants were young adults. They arranged exemplars in each category in orders reflecting degrees of association with category labels. The results suggest that rank-ordering approaches yield results similar to those obtained with traditional procedures and are appropriate for assessing semantic associations when the use of response time and priming effect measures are questionable, as is the case with some potential augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users. Such alternate procedures may be beneficial when attempting to match a client's unique organization of semantic information to an AAC system.