Comparisons between cultural and individual associative response hierarchies

Abstract

The S s were required to respond with five associations to each of 100 Kent-Rosanoff stimulus words. The resulting associations were compared with other available associations in order to investigate the correspondence between cultural and individual associative response hierarchies and to assess the correspondence between associations generated by real versus simulated verbal chains. It was found that primary cultural associations across the samples studied were very similar, but that the individual and cultural hierarchies did not correspond closely. It was also observed that the responses generated by real and by simulated verbal chains had little correspondence.