the free recall of owned and not owned things in the 
presence of the experimenter to assure that the recall was 
done in one sitting without interruptions or consultation 
with outside sources. However, because subjects were being 
recruited in their work places, many who agreed to 
participate claimed that they could not take the time from 
work to do any of the questionnaire. Thus, for 57 subjects 
(39 females, 18 males), the recall tasks were done in the 
presence of the experimenter, and for 63 subjects (31 
females, 42 males), recall was done with the experimenter 
absent. However, all subjects completed the second, third 
and fourth sections of the questionnaire on their own and 
returned the completed forms by mail. 
The actual recall items, of course, exhibited 
considerable variability in both content and expression. To 
reduce this heterogeneity prior to tabulation and analysis, 
the recall responses were systemized by three post hoc 
methods. First, the expressions of the recall items were 
standardized by the following rules: 1) modifiers were 
placed after the generic noun, e.g. "a new Ford truck" 
became "truck (a new Ford)"; 2) items that consisted only 
of brand names were given a preceding generic name, e.g. 
"Cuisinart" became "food processor (Cuisinart)"; 3) common 
spellings were given to such words as barbeque, fridge. 
jewellery, clothes, skiis, swimming pool, tennis racquet;