THE EFFECT OF INTERVIEWER AMBIGUITY-SPECIFICITY AND TOPICAL FOCUS ON INTERVIEWEE VOCABULARY DIVERSITY.

An experimental analogue of the initial interview is used to investigate the effects of interviewer ambiguity-specificity and topical focus, i.e., a low- vs. a high-anxiety arousing topic, on interviewee vocabulary diversity, measured by the type-token ratio. This paper is one of a series dealing with the effects of both the ambiguity level and the anxiety arousing potential in an interviewer's remarks on interviewee's responses. In the present study authors are concerned with the effects of the above two interviewer variables on interviewee vocabulary diversity, as measured by the types token-ratio, i.e., the ratio of different words (types) to the total number of words (tokens).