Associative rigidity in free and controlled association

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the feasibility of repetitiveness of associations to the same stimulus words as a measure of associative rigidity and to determine the correlation between rigidity scores in free association and controlled association tasks. One hundred and twenty-seven subjects were given a free association task first, followed by a controlled association task with subordinate concepts as the required responses. In both tasks, each test word was presented five times in the entire list. The number of different responses to the same stimulus word were counted and summed over 12 test words. Higher response variability was indicative of lower associative rigidity level. The product-moment correlation between the two tasks was.626, signifying a common factor of rigidity in free and controlled association tasks. Repetitiveness of the same associative response to the same stimulus was interpreted as a sensible measure of associative rigidity or stereotypy.