The Role of Prior Message Context in Evaluative Judgments of High- and Low-Diversity Messages

Two studies are reported. The first explored the possibility of contrast effects in judgments of messages exhibiting high or low lexical and syntactic diversity. Listeners heard an initial message and then a subsequent message which differed in diversity level. Results indicated that contrast effects were obtained, though these effects were facilitated or inhibited by other aspects of message quality. In light of a previous negative result, the second study examined the effects of nearly immediate comparisons of messages exhibiting high or low syntactic diversity, with lexical diversity held constant. No significant main effects or interractions were obtained. This led to the inference that listeners are sensitive to variations in lexical, as opposed to syntactic, diversity.