Psycholinguistic Analysis of the Structure of the Association Area of the Stimulus Competence

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of the association area structure of the notion of competence based on the results of the free association experiment. It was found out that respondents verbalize both key components of the lexicographical and terminological meaning of the notion (awareness, experience, skills, knowledge, mind) and its axiological component (politeness, correctness, professionalism, responsibility, respect). Some reactions testify to the process of identifying competence with the professional sphere of activity (profession, job).
 As a result of processing of associative reactions, it has been established that the associative gestalt of the word-stimulus forms 10 zones – the notional components, the subject, the subject’s activity, the field of the subject’s activity, leading features of the subject’s activity, the moral and ethical face of the subject of activity, characteristic features of the subject’s activity, evaluative reactions, individual reactions, emotions. Each zone of the associative gestalt in accordance with the quantitative indicators is assigned a rank from 1 to 9 (in two zones the number of reactions coincides). The core of the associative gestalt (ranks 1 – 2) includes frequency responses that correspond to the zones «Notional components» and «Leading features of the subject’s activity», the remaining zones (ranks 3 – 9) form the periphery. Core reactions indicate a sufficiently high level of respondents’ mastering of key components of the notion as well as realization of the demand for a new generation of specialists by native speakers that can effectively apply the acquired knowledge and skills in a certain field of activity.
 The article also deals with the analysis of associative reactions in accordance with the model of the epistemological structure of consciousness of native speakers. It was found out that in the linguistic consciousness of respondents a certain balance is maintained between subjective (the value and motivational sphere) and objective (the logical and notional sphere) images; dominant in the cognitive activity of informers is the mental level of consciousness images, since in the emotional and affective sphere there are no frequency responses, and the body-perceptual sphere is not represented verbally.