Free word associations and the frequency of co-occurrence in language use
Manfred Wettler · 2002
Abstract This chapter shows which predictions about the relation between the strength of free word associations and the frequency of co-occurrence of the stimulus and the response word in language use can be derived from the stimulus sampling theory of Estes (1950). It describes a method to test these predictions and show that they prove correct. Examples are given to demonstrate how the possibility of predicting human word associations can be used in consumer research. This work is then linked to other approaches which relate co-occurrences between words to word associations as well as to other observations about verbal behaviour.