Relational Integration and Association Strength in Integrative Priming

Researchers suggest quantification of qualitative data as an innovative approach to knowledge creation. Brand associations, a form of qualitative data, are common in measuring customer-based brand equity. The branding literature suggests that not all brand associations are equal. The strength, uniqueness and valence of brand associations need to be considered when assessing brand associations (Keller 1993). Although Keller's work is cited by many, no study has devised a method to quantify and integrate these three dimensions into a single index. This study provides an approach to address all three dimensions simultaneously. The approach first determines uniqueness of brand associations by coding associations into several mutually exclusive meaning categories. Then the serial order of free-association elicitation is used to assess association strength. The serial order, combined with a measure of valence, creates a quantification of open-ended brand associations called a ‘weighted valence index’ (WVI). In conclusion, the paper discusses the reliability and validity of the proposed measure.

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N-gram use in EFL learners’ retelling and monologic tasks

IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching ◽

10.1515/iral-2021-0080 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Xiaopeng Zhang ◽

Baoshan Zhao ◽

Wenwen Li

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Association Strength ◽

College Level ◽

Efl Learners ◽

Proficiency Levels ◽

Oral Production ◽

Speaking Proficiency ◽

N Gram

Abstract This study examined n-gram use in oral production by Chinese college-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners at four distinct proficiency levels. Thirty indices regarding range, frequency, and association strength of bi- and tri-grams obtained from retelling and monologic samples were analyzed. Results suggest that, i) the four proficiency levels differed in measures for frequency and association strength of bi- and tri-grams, ii) academic bi- and tri-gram proportions and association strength (captured by MI- and t-scores) were predictive of EFL speaking proficiency for both the retelling and monologic samples but the effects were small, and iii) EFL learners used more well-attested bi- and tri-grams in monologues than in retelling, demonstrating that higher rated samples tended to contain more strongly-associated bi- and tri-grams, a greater proportion of frequent attested academic tri-grams, and that EFL n-gram use was task-sensitive. These findings help enrich our understanding on EFL development of multi-word sequences and have potentially useful implications for EFL pedagogy.

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How well do similarity measures predict priming in abstract and concrete concepts?

10.31234/osf.io/ypvgw ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Maria Montefinese ◽

Erin Michelle Buchanan ◽

David Vinson

Keyword(s):

Word Association ◽

Semantic Representation ◽

Similarity Measures ◽

Semantic Features ◽

Association Strength ◽

Abstract Concepts ◽

Strategic Processes ◽

Different Types ◽

Two Measures ◽

Concrete Concepts

Models of semantic representation predict that automatic priming is determined by associative and co-occurrence relations (i.e., spreading activation accounts), or to similarity in words' semantic features (i.e., featural models). Although, these three factors are correlated in characterizing semantic representation, they seem to tap different aspects of meaning. We designed two lexical decision experiments to dissociate these three different types of meaning similarity. For unmasked primes, we observed priming only due to association strength and not the other two measures; and no evidence for differences in priming for concrete and abstract concepts. For masked primes there was no priming regardless of the semantic relation. These results challenge theoretical accounts of automatic priming. Rather, they are in line with the idea that priming may be due to participants’ controlled strategic processes. These results provide important insight about the nature of priming and how association strength, as determined from word-association norms, relates to the nature of semantic representation.

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Evidence for a behavioural syndrome and negative social assortment by exploratory personality in the communally nesting rodent, Octodon degus

Behaviour ◽

10.1163/1568539x-00003433 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 154 (5) ◽

pp. 541-562 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Rachel Y. Chock ◽

Tina W. Wey ◽

Luis A. Ebensperger ◽

Loren D. Hayes

Keyword(s):

Social Interactions ◽

Wild Population ◽

Animal Personality ◽

Behavioural Syndrome ◽

Behavioural Ecology ◽

Association Strength ◽

Dyadic Interactions ◽

Communally Nesting ◽

Social Associations ◽

Social Assortment

Recent research in behavioural ecology has revealed the structure of animal personality and connections to ecologically and evolutionarily important traits. Personality is hypothesized to influence social interactions through individual behavioural differences or personality-based dyadic interactions. We describe the structure of personality traits and ask if two traits, boldness and exploration, play a role in the strength or pattern of social associations in a wild population of degus, a rodent that often lives communally with unrelated conspecifics. Boldness was repeatable in both adults and juveniles, but exploration was only repeatable in adults. We found evidence for a behavioural syndrome between exploration and boldness in adult degus. We documented negative assortment by exploratory personality type; more exploratory animals shared burrows with less exploratory animals. However, tendency towards boldness and exploration were not predictive of association strength. Our results highlight a potential connection between personality and social structure in a communally nesting species.

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