Free Association Data Research Articles

Preliminary Data from the Small World of Singlish Words Project: Examining Responses to Common Singlish Words

We report data from the Small World of Singlish Words (SWOSW) Project, where word associations are obtained for a list of common Singlish words. Singapore English, colloquially known as Singlish, is a dialect of English spoken in Singapore. Free association data on these words were collected from a young adult population of university undergraduates using an online survey platform. This data enables the construction of semantic networks, allowing one to examine the semantic structure of individual words in the Singlish lexicon, as well as to compare differences in semantic structure across groups of participants.

Free association in a neural network.

Free association among words is a fundamental and ubiquitous memory task. Although distributed semantics (DS) models can predict the association between pairs of words, and semantic network (SN) models can describe transition probabilities in free association data, there have been few attempts to apply established cognitive process models of memory search to free association data. Thus, researchers are currently unable to explain the dynamics of free association using memory mechanisms known to be at play in other retrieval tasks, such as free recall from lists. We address this issue using a popular neural network model of free recall, the context maintenance and retrieval (CMR) model, which we fit using stochastic gradient descent on a large data set of free association norms. Special cases of CMR mimic existing DS and SN models of free association, and we find that CMR outperforms these models on out-of-sample free association data. We also show that training CMR on free association data generates improved predictions for free recall from lists, demonstrating the value of free association for the study of many different types of memory phenomena. Overall, our analysis provides a new account of the dynamics of free association, predicts free association with increased accuracy, integrates theories of free association with established models of memory, and shows how large data sets and neural network training methods can be used to model complex cognitive processes that operate over thousands of representations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Moral rebels and dietary deviants: How moral minority stereotypes predict the social attractiveness of veg*ns

In this preregistered study we examined why people with an omnivorous diet (i.e., omnivores) would view vegetarians and vegans (i.e., veg*ns) as less socially attractive based on their status as stigmatized moral minorities. Drawing on a recently demonstrated distinction between perceived morality and sociability in research on universal dimensions of stereotype content, we expected that veg*ns would be perceived as more moral but less sociable compared to omnivores. A lower perceived sociability would predict a lower social attractiveness of veg*ns, supported by two additional stereotypes theorized to be specifically associated with moral minorities: moralistic and eccentric impressions. In addition, we explored impressions toward people who consciously reduce their meat intake (i.e., flexitarians) and we complemented our quantitative analysis with an analysis of stereotype content omnivores freely associated with the dietary groups. Accordingly, using a single factor between-subjects experimental design, we randomly allocated a diverse sample of omnivores from the UK to answer questions about either omnivores (n = 100), flexitarians (n = 101), vegetarians (n = 105) or vegans (n = 106). Results largely confirmed our hypotheses: Although veg*ns were perceived as more moral, they were also stereotyped more negatively (especially vegans). More specifically, they were seen as more eccentric and, in particular, more moralistic, predicting a lower social attractiveness, though indirect effects via sociability were relatively small. Notably, flexitarians shared positive attributes of both non-flexitarian groups. Free association data were largely consistent with our results and provide additional direction for further inquiry. Novel theoretical contributions are highlighted and limitations, future research directions, and implications of our study for theory and practice are discussed.

Paradigmatic associations and individual variability in early lexical-semantic networks: Evidence from a free association task.

Between 6 and 9 years of age, children's free associations shift from syntagmatic to paradigmatic relationships. Syntagmatic relations are words that are syntactically adjacent, thematically related (summer-vacation), or both; paradigmatic relations are words from the same grammatical class, taxonomic category (summer-winter), or both. Infant researchers have reliably found evidence for the activation of paradigmatic relationships by 24 months. Because of a lack of data from children aged 3 to 5 years, the developmental trajectory of paradigmatic relations is unclear. With age-appropriate stimuli, this work is among the first to collect free association data for children under 5. Children (n = 60; age range = 3-8 years) and adults (n = 60; age range = 18 to 43 years) were instructed to respond to a prime word with the first word that came to mind. Unifying the data from previous studies with infants and older children, our data suggest that paradigmatic relations are present in early childhood but also increase in prevalence with age. Several exploratory analyses revealed that younger children gave more varied responses, suggesting that early lexical-semantic networks are more idiosyncratic. We also found preliminary evidence that responses varied by grammatical class and gender across age groups, with implications for both theory and experimental design. By continuing data collection across the life span and making the dataset public, future work will further elucidate the development of lexical-semantic networks from early childhood onward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Perspetiva dos estudantes e docentes acerca do debriefing na prática simulada

Enquadramento: a simulação é uma estratégia pedagógica que envolve uma representação hipotética da realidade clínica. O debriefing na prática simulada consiste num método de aprendizagem que tem como objetivo a reflexão sobre o sucedido, incluindo aspetos positivos e negativos, com a formulação de alternativas aos aspetos que correram menos bem. Objetivo: compreender a perspetiva dos estudantes e dos docentes do curso de licenciatura em enfermagem acerca da utilização do debriefing na prática simulada. Metodologia: estudo qualitativo descritivo orientado pela teoria das representações sociais. Foi utilizado como instrumento de recolha de dados um questionário (googledocs) com um Teste de Associação Livre de Palavras (TALP) e análise de dados com recurso ao Iramuteq. Resultados: o estudo integrou 52 estudantes e 9 docentes do curso de licenciatura em enfermagem. A partir da classificação hierárquica descendente obtivemos cinco classes: competência (30%), pensamento crítico-reflexivo (23%), aprendizagem (18%), evolução (18%) e atitude (11%). Conclusão: o debriefing na prática simulada representa para os estudantes e docentes do curso da licenciatura em enfermagem um momento de desenvolvimento de competências e pensamento crítico-reflexivo.

In defense of spatial models of semantic representation

Abstract Recent semantic space models learn vector representations for word meanings by observing statistical redundancies across a text corpus. A word's meaning is represented as a point in a high-dimensional semantic space, and semantic similarity between words is quantified by a function of their spatial proximity (typically the cosine of the angle between their corresponding vector representations). Recently, Griffiths, Steyvers, and Tenenbaum (2007) demonstrated that spatial models are unable to simulate human free association data due to the constraints placed upon them by metric axioms which appear to be violated in association norms. However, it is important to note that free association data is the product of a retrieval process operating on a semantic representation, and the failures of spatial models are likely be due to mistaking the similarity metric (cosine) for an appropriate process model of the association task—cosine is not what people do with a memory representation. Here, we test the ability of spatial semantic models to simulate association data when they are fused with a simple Luce choice rule to simulate the process of selecting a response in free association. The results provide an existence proof that spatial models can produce the patterns of data in free association previously thought to be problematic for this class of models.

Quantifying the structure of free association networks across the life span.

We investigate how the mental lexicon changes over the life span using free association data from over 8,000 individuals, ranging from 10 to 84 years of age, with more than 400 cue words per age group. Using network analysis, with words as nodes and edges defined by the strength of shared associations, we find that associative networks evolve in a nonlinear (U-shaped) fashion over the life span. During early life, the network converges and becomes increasingly structured, with reductions in average path length, entropy, clustering coefficient, and small world index. Into late life, the pattern reverses but shows clear differences from early life. The pattern is independent of the increasing number of word types produced per cue across the life span, consistent with a network encoding an increasing number of relations between words as individuals age. Lifetime variability is dominantly driven by associative change in the least well-connected words. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cultura cidadã: aproximação psicossocial da norma legal no contexto de uma favela carioca

In the first part of this paper, we approach the citizenship culture as it was developed in Colombia by the former mayor of Bogota, Antanas Mockus, taking into account both the conceptual structure and the methodological principles of implementation, namely, the internalization of the rule and the creation of communication strategies aimed at achieving willingly cooperation. After making a psychosocial approach of the citizenship culture in the light of the theory of the social representations, we present the results of a prototypical analysis based on free association data from a sample of 156 teenagers who live at Mangueira slum, in Rio de Janeiro, exercise that enabled us to make a socio-cultural and political reading from the fulfillment or failure of the law. Finally, as an educational proposal, we hand in the results of a participatory action research —Aventureiros—, a program of education for citizenship focused on children, based on the very Colombian methodological principles of the citizenship culture and adapted to the Rio de Janeiro favela environment.

Evocation: analyzing and propagating a semantic link based on free word association

Studies of lexical---semantic relations aim to understand the mechanism of semantic memory and the organization of the mental lexicon. However, standard paradigmatic relations such as hypernym and hyponym cannot capture connections among concepts from different parts of speech. WordNet, which organizes synsets (i.e., synonym sets) using these lexical---semantic relations, is rather sparse in its connectivity. According to WordNet statistics, the average number of outgoing/incoming arcs for the hypernym/hyponym relation per synset is 1.33. Evocation, defined as how much a concept (expressed by one or more words) brings to mind another, is proposed as a new directed and weighted measure for the semantic relatedness among concepts. Commonly applied semantic relations and relatedness measures do not seem to be fully compatible with data that reflect evocations among concepts. They are compatible but evocation captures MORE. This work aims to provide a reliable and extendable dataset of concepts evoked by, and evoking, other concepts to enrich WordNet, the existing semantic network. We propose the use of disambiguated free word association data (first responses to verbal stimuli) to infer and collect evocation ratings. WordNet aims to represent the organization of mental lexicon, and free word association which has been used by psycholinguists to explore semantic organization can contribute to the understanding. This work was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, it was confirmed that existing free word association norms can be converted into evocation data computationally. In the second phase, a two-stage association-annotation procedure of collecting evocation data from human judgment was compared to the state-of-the-art method, showing that introducing free association can greatly improve the quality of the evocation data generated. Evocation can be incorporated into WordNet as directed links with scales, and benefits various natural language processing applications.

TOPOLOGICAL VERSUS DYNAMICAL ROBUSTNESS IN A LEXICAL NETWORK

Semantic memory is the cognitive system devoted to the storage of conceptual knowledge. Empirical semantic networks constructed from adult generated free word association data represent a good map for this system. Concepts, represented as words, link each other with a certain weight representing the strength of their relation. Everyday experience shows that word search and retrieval processes, which can be assimilated to traversals on a semantic network, provide fluent and coherent speech, i.e. are efficient and robust. Brain pathologies, such as Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia, severely damage neural structures and associated capacities. Thus, semantic networks must also undergo disruption, but the question is how long cognitive processes, which depend on the underlying structures, can operate before collapsing. Interestingly, we find that degradation of the original structure has a dramatic impact on the topology of semantic network, whereas the dynamics upon it evidence much higher resilience. We define this problem in the framework of percolation theory.

Critérios de construção e relato da análise prototípica para representações sociais

A análise prototípica é uma convenção de apresentação bastante difundida para caracterizar a estrutura de uma representação social a partir de dados de evocações livres. O presente texto visa a sistematizar e indicar algumas dessas informações que deveriam estar presentes na descrição de resultados da análise prototípica, discutindo brevemente os prós e contras de algumas opções de realização da análise. Para tanto, é feita uma breve introdução da análise e posteriormente passa-se a considerações técnicas, finalizando com um exemplo de relato.

Learning more about cultures through free word association data

The paper is discussing some issues connected with verbal codes of communication. It re-introduces one of the experimental methods of cultural studies. The author shows the opportunities provided by the use of free word association experiment in cultural, cross- and intercultural analyses. To investigate how languages reflect differences in the cultural values of the Americans and of the Belarusians the author compares the free word association experiment data collected in Minnesota (USA) and in Minsk (Belarus) in 1999-2000.

The University of South Florida free association, rhyme, and word fragment norms

Preexisting word knowledge is accessed in many cognitive tasks, and this article offers a means for indexing this knowledge so that it can be manipulated or controlled. We offer free association data for 72,000 word pairs, along with over a million entries of related data, such as forward and backward strength, number of competing associates, and printed frequency. A separate file contains the 5,019 normed words, their statistics, and thousands of independently normed rhyme, stem, and fragment cues. Other files provide n x n associative networks for more than 4,000 words and a list of idiosyncratic responses for each normed word. The database will be useful for investigators interested in cuing, priming, recognition, network theory, linguistics, and implicit testing applications. They also will be useful for evaluating the predictive value of free association probabilities as compared with other measures, such as similarity ratings and co-occurrence norms. Of several procedures for measuring preexisting strength between two words, the best remains to be determined. The norms may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive/.

Free associations to “food:” the effects of gender, generation, and culture

Free association patterns to the word “food” (first three words that come to mind) are used at the group level to investigate “default” attitudes toward food, comparing genders, American generations (college students, their parents, and their grandparents), and college students in three cultures (the United States, France, and India). Frequencies of free associations for each group were organized into categories and assigned a positive, negative, or neutral valence. We provide evidence that these free associations have some stability over a 2-month time period, as well as some validity. Generation and culture are good predictors of free association content and valence, with gender a less powerful predictor. Overall, examination of free association data indicates that Americans are most worried about what they consume and are most “fat” phobic, students (youngest generation) are most inclined towards unhealthy foods and least concerned about the health effects of foods, and that, combining across generations, females are somewhat more concerned about food and health and fat but these effects are smaller than culture or generation effects.

The ties that bind what is known to the recognition of what is new.

Recognition success varies with how information is encoded (e.g., level of processing) and with what is already known as a result of past learning (e.g., word frequency). This article presents the results of experiments showing that preexisting connections involving the associates of studied words facilitate their recognition regardless of whether the words are intentionally encoded or are incidentally encoded under semantic or nonsemantic conditions. Words are more likely to be recognized when they have either more resonant connections coming back to them from their associates or more connections among their associates. Such results occur even though attention is never drawn to these associates. Regression analyses showed that these connections affect recognition independently of frequency, so the present results add to the literature showing that prior lexical knowledge contributes to episodic recognition. In addition, equations that use free-association data to derive composite strength indices of resonance and connectivity were evaluated. Implications for theories of recognition are discussed.

The rules used by children and adults in attempting to generate random numbers

A rule-based mathematical model is proposed to account for the attempts of children and adults to generate random strings of numbers. All the subjects in Experiment 1 and half the subjects in Experiment 2 were asked to generate random strings using the numerals 1 to 6. The remaining subjects in Experiment 2 were asked to free associate the numerals 1 to 6 to nonsense syllables. In the first experiment, the rules used by subjects were shown to change as a function of age and inter-response interval. In the second experiment, the presence or absence of prior responses had little effect on the adults attempting to generate random strings. The mathematical model fitted the data of individual subjects asked to generate random strings in both experiments, but failed to fit the free-association data in Experiment 2. Across the two experiments, it appears that subjective conceptions of randomness rather than memory or inattention to the task are of primary importance in random generation. The need for additional conceptual development is discussed.

Some quantitative free associative correlates of noble's m

Three studies explore relationships between measures of associative meaningfulness derived from free association data, and independent measures derived from Noble's conception, m . Under certain conditions m is substantially negatively correlated with the number of different free association responses (regardless of probability of occurrence), and, hence, negatively with H , the average associative uncertainty of a stimulus. However, these relationships are by no means general over all types and frequencies of stimuli: they occur only ( a ) for CVC trigrams, but not for CVC words; ( b ) for a word sample which includes items with word frequencies ranging as low as

Associative similarity of words and pictures

At various times research investigators have compared the effect upon learning of using pictures or words as stimuli (for example: Kale, Grosslight, & McIntyre, 1955; Bousfield, Esterson, & Whitmarsh, 1957; Ducharme & Fraisse, 1965; Lumsdaine, 1949; Deno, 1968; Jenkins, Neale & Deno, 1967). The general result of these comparisons has been that word and picture stimuli produce differential effects in tasks of learning and retention. In spite of these effects and the potential significance, both educational and psychological, of research on words and pictures, no systematic attempt has been made to establish a basis for the differential effects obtained, and no theoretical model exists to suggest programs of research. The type of situation which seems to bear the closest relationship to the effects obtained in learning and retention with word and picture stimuli is that in which free association data

Association rules in the prediction of recall from free-association matrices.

Abstract : Correlations within methods (SR or FR) between criteria 28 days apart are substantially higher than correlations between methods at 2 min. or at 28 days. Stimulation, then, imposes its own particular alignment of items during recall. A substantial number of associative predictors can be computed by reference to free-association norms, many of which, but not all, are interrelated. These predictors suggest processes which may be responsible for recall. A great many of the predictors correlated well with stimulated recall. Thus, there are several ways of using free-association data other than in one, simple, direct way. None of these ways seemed relevant to the free recall data which remain unexplained. (Author)

A free-association test of the differential unlearning hypothesis of pseudomediation

Three predictions, generated from the Mandler and Earhard postulates of pseudomediation, were considered in a three stage PA transfer situation designed to facilitate a mediatedchaining effect. Predictions of superior control condition performance in the second stage, and superior experimental condition performance in the third stage were supported. Free-association data failed to support a prediction of differential unlearning of A-B associations during the second stage. The Earhard and Mandler evidence for differential unlearning is questioned in terms of relevance to experimental conditions used to show the pseudomediation effect.