AN INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCE PERSPECTIVE APPLIED TO WORD-ASSOCIATION

Most cognitive approaches to word association and some theories of soc ial cognition converge on the notion that the performance of repetitiv e behaviors should predict word association responses. To study this i ssue, the authors examined the frequencies of free-association respons es of 1,003 subjects to ambiguous words, some of which had subdominant senses that were linked to repetitive behaviors (e.g., draft and alco hol use). Results showed that three out of four measures of individual differences in repetitive behaviors significantly predicted responses for words linked to their respective behaviors. Gender, age, and lang uage background were controlled for in these analyses. Although cognit ive approaches suggested that an experimental manipulation of item pre sentation (grouped vs. randomly mixed items) should influence response s, this effect was not significant. Implications are discussed in term s of theories of lexical ambiguity and implicit influences of memory f or previous experiences.