scholarly journals The Organization of Words in Mental Lexicon: Evidence from Word Association Test

TEKNOSASTIK ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Budi Eko Pranoto ◽  
Lidia K. Afrilita

Both in psychology and linguistics studies, memory is one of the core of interests amongst researchers. In linguistics, memory is the place where language processes consisting of language perception, storage, and access of words take place. Words, in memory, are stored in complex, clear, well-organized, and ordered networks called nodes, which can be represented by World Wide Web.  This word organization in psycholinguistics is referred to mental lexicon. This study aims to investigate what kind of nodes representation stored in mental lexicon of foreign language learners. Word Association Test (WAT), the well-known study method in both psychology and linguistics studies, is employed by using English Swadesh word list as the stimulus to elicit the lexical relation amongst words. The basic principle of the test is giving a stimulus to respondents and asking them to give the very first word coming out of their mind. Respondents are undergraduate students of English Literature a university in Indonesia.  Findings of this research support the previous findings stating that non-native speakers tend to make syntagmatic relation, which is mostly dominated by collocation association. Interestingly, the finding also shows that the words network in mental lexicon involves a dynamic development based on experience and perception of the respondents.Key Words: lexical relation, mental lexicon, word association

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Ebru Ay ◽  
Halil Tokcan

The aim of this research is to reveal the prospective social studies teachers’ cognitive structures regarding creative drama through the Word Association Test (WAT). The study group of the research consists of 85 prospective social studies teachers, as the final year undergraduate students attending the course of drama at Faculty of Education in Nigde Ömer Halisdemir University, in the spring term of the academic year 2015-2016. In the research, as data collection tool, Word Association Test was used. To the prospective teachers, WAT was implemented as pretest before the course of drama and as posttest after a 14-week-drama course. According to the findings obtained, the word which the prospective social studies teachers associated with the key concept creative drama at most was play in the pretest; however, it was improvisation in the posttest. Moreover, it is seen that the prospective teachers have associated the key concept creative drama with more words in the posttest, when compared to the case in the pretest, and some certain concepts incorrect in the pretest have been eliminated in the posttest. This situation shows that the prospective teachers have had a conceptual development regarding creative drama at the end of drama course; additionally, new and correct concepts have been acquired instead of the incorrect ones. Also, it can be stated that word association test is an effective technique in detecting misconceptions and prospective teachers’ conceptual development.


Author(s):  
Sedigheh Sharifi ◽  
Masoud Khalili Sabet ◽  
Abdorreza Tahriri

Vocabulary learning in both L1 and L2 is considered important to master a language. Individuals need to learn the words in order to express ideas and to communicate. As a result, research into word knowledge is important as it provides useful information considering the way in which words are learned and organized in individuals’ mind; however different studies have been conducted in this regard, there is a long way to fully understand individuals’ mental lexicon. So, word association tests are used to examine the word knowledge, to study vocabulary learning process, and how it occurs in the language learners’ mind. Similarly, the aim of this paper is to investigate the way in which words are stored and organized in Iranian EFL learners’ mental lexicon through a word association test. To this end, a word association test was designed including eight prompt words from different word classes and was administered to 50 Iranian EFL learners. They were randomly selected and included 22 males and 28 females from Razi University and an institute in Kermanshah, Iran. After administering the test, to analyze the data, learners’ responses were classified and the frequency of each classification of word association was calculated and chi-square tests were run to compare responses. Results reveal that the participants displayed different patterns in their responses as syntagmatic and paradigmatic classification. Most of them made more syntagmatic responses than paradigmatic ones. As a result, it can be concluded that more participants make mental links with syntagmatic compared to others who make links with paradigmatic and there are significant differences between male and female learners in the use of syntagmatic and paradigmatic responses; on the other hand, it appears that there is no significant differences in learners’ word association regarding age. This study has useful implications for both EFL teachers and learners by helping them understand and improve the lexical acquisition process.


Author(s):  
A. L. Benton ◽  
de S. K. Hamsher ◽  
A. B. Sivan

1979 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunio Shiomi

For 40 Japanese undergraduates reaction times to the Rapa-port Word Association Test were recorded. Significant negative correlations were obtained between reaction times and Extraversion scores on the Maudsley Personality Inventory, but positive correlations with Neuroticism scores were obtained. These results were discussed in terms of the defense mechanisms of the ego and differences in types of personality.


1978 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. W. Preece

Substantial test-retest stability of individual differences in indices of response availability and overlap in a continued word-association test was found over an interval of 3 yr. An increase in the mean values of the indices over the 3-yr. period for 20 subjects initially aged 12 yr. was confirmed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 579-597
Author(s):  
Ivana Gligorijevic

In this paper, we analyze the reactions collected in a word association test. A total of 654 respondents participated. The test included twelve stimuli related to Oriental peoples, languages and countries. The test was done through an online survey. The respondents cited words or word groups that first came to their minds while reading the given stimuli. We aimed to answer the question: what our knowledge of Oriental peoples is based on and what stereotypesand prejudices we hold about them. The attention is paid to two of the stimuli from the test - Persians and Persian. We look at the frequency and the variety of respondents? reactions. Furthermore, we analyze groups of reactions that belong to the same thematic field. Our results were compared with other ethnonymsfrom the same association test, which had previously been analyzed in other research papers. The most frequent reaction was carpet/carpets, due to the common collocation Persian carpet. Frequent reactions to Iran/Iranians, history and historical figures were also found. The most significant thematic fields are the following: war, history, intellectual and cultural heritage, religion, politics and numerous positive and neutral judgments and attitudes. Therefore, it seems that our stereotypes, judgments, and attitudes about Persians are based on secondary sources, rather than primary. As a result, they lack affective meanings and negative connotations. According to respondents? reactions, Persians are seen as ancient warriors, founders of an old culture and civilization, a nation with a rich cultural and intellectual heritage, descendants of significant historical figures and holders of many qualities, such as wit, wisdom, dignity, nobility, and other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Ömer Türksever

This research, which was conducted in order to reveal the cognitive structures of high school students regarding the concept of energy through the word association test, was designed in a survey model. Word association test was used as a data collection tool. After the necessary information was given to the students, they were given three minutes and they were asked to write the first words that came to mind about the key concept. The study group of the research consists of 202 students studying in a high school in the province of Malatya in the 2019-2020 academic year. 58 of these students are 9th grade, 46 are 10th grade, 45 are 11th grade and 53 are 12th grade. While choosing the study group of the research, one of the purposeful sampling types was chosen based on easily accessible situation sampling. The words obtained related to the concept of energy are tabulated using Microsoft office excel program. The cut-off points of the tables, which were examined in detail and repeated words were taken into account, were determined. Concept networks were created in line with the determined cut-off points. In the research, 189 different words were produced for the concept of energy by high school students. While 114 of these words were not included in the analysis because they had 4 or less frequencies, 75 words were included in the analysis. Among the words included in the analysis, the most repeated word in the 9th grade was “petrol” (f = 30), the most repeated word in the 10th grade was “fossil fuel” (24), the most repeated word in the 11th grade “electricity” (19), the most repeated word in the 12th grade was found to be “potential” (28). In the comparison between the classes, a difference in quantity and quality is observed. It has been observed that as the grade level increases, the quality of the answers given increases.


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