Word association lists were administered to normals, good pre- morbid and poor premorbid schizophrenics under relaxed, speed and popular instructions. Normals and goodpremorbids performed similarly in regard both to the commonality scores received under each set and to the effects of instructions on commonality scores. Normals, however, were influenced by the order in which instructions were presented. Their commonality scores under the relaxed set were highest when the popular instructions preceded the relaxed. Poor premorbids gave significantly fewer common responses under all sets and responded to the sets differently. Results were interpreted in light of Broen's theory of response disorganization.