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Word Association Test
I. ABSTRACT
This study aimed to determine which type of association test will elicit a
shorter reaction time and more response words - the free association test
or the partially controlled association test. Experimenter used
experimental research design as a methodology. The results showed that
the participant elicit shorter reaction and more response words on free
association test than in partially controlled association test. For future
researchers, two experimenters should conduct this experiment for
accurate reaction time.
II. INTRODUCTION
A synonym is a word that has the same or nearly the same meaning
as another word. The term synonym comes from a combination of the
Ancient Greek syn, meaning with, and onoma, meaning “name.”
Synonyms are regular and essential parts of everyday language that we
use almost without thinking. They come in all parts of speech: nouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and so on (Literary Terms).
There are a lot of studies that gave reasons why individuals have
several frequencies of response words in word association one of these is
the study of Richard J. Stanley, wherein Stanley duplicated the work of
Johnson and Snider about the controlled association in the Chicago area.
He used a method of stratified random sampling from a normal population.
He tried to determine whether differences in age, sex, and education
significantly affect responses on the test. In his study, he subdivided the
group of 400 men and 400 women according to age and education. There
was found to be a positive correlation with education and a negative
correlation of the same magnitude with age. Both correlations were
significant for the entire sample of 400 men and 400 women, but neither
showed a rectilinear relationship throughout the whole range of ages and
education. There was also a sex difference found in his study, which
showed up in his consistently higher community scores for women as
compared to men.
III. METHODS
A. Objectives
B. Hypothesis
C. Materials
E. Subjects
Table 1
Response Words and Reaction Time of Individual Participant in Free
Association
Table 2
Individual Participant Response Words in Free Association
Table 3
Individual Participant Response Words and Number of Response Words in
Partially Controlled Association
Table 4
Individual Participant Response Words and Reaction Time in Partially
Controlled Association
Stimulus Words Response Words Reaction Time
(Seconds)
MIDDLE CENTER 2.33
BUTTOCKS BUTT 2.33
WOMAN LADY 4.22
VOCAL VOICE 3.01
MONSTER BAD 4.75
MENTOR TEACHER 3.70
DEMON EVIL 2.52
MASTER LEADER 3.14
ACNE BUMPS 2.56
EXPERT TECHNICIAN 25.55
LEADER HIGHER 2.83
FATHER PAPA 4.48
POETRY SONG 3.95
NAPKIN CLOTH 4.94
USEFUL HELPFUL 20.33
TWINKLE LIGHT 2.73
INFANT BABY 7.71
TENDER JUICY 3.23
LABOR NANGANGANAK 3.36
MONEY WEALTH 3.79
Total Correct Answer 15 5.57 seconds
and Mean Reaction
Time
Table 5
Reaction time of Group Data in Free Association
Table 6
Mean Score and Percentage of Group Data in Free Association
Table 7
Mean Score of Group Data in Partially Controlled Association
Table 8
Scores, Percentage and Mean Reaction Time of Group Data in Partially
Controlled Association
Table 7 presents the group data scores for five stimulus words in the
partially controlled association. It clearly shows that participants of
experimenter 21 obtained the highest response words from stimulus words
1,2, 4, and 5, with corresponding scores of 47, 40, 41, and 40.
Experimenter 21 said that the participant is a reader. This makes the
participant have a broad vocabulary that helps the participant in the
association. And in stimulus word 3, the participant of experimenter 3 got
the highest score with 51 points. The participant who scored the lowest on
stimulus words 1, 4, and 5 was the participant of experimenter 23 who got
9, 8, and 4 as a score. In stimulus word 2, the participant of experimenter
5 received the lowest score which is 5. And lastly, the participant with the
lowest score for stimulus number 3 is the participant of experimenter 28,
who got a score of 8. According to other experimenters with participants
who scores less than 10 points, participants spaced out a lot and the
others give response words cautiously. But it could also be because these
participants had difficulty providing an association to the next stimulus
word they provide maybe because it is a tough word. The overall mean
score of the five stimulus words was 22.25 sec, 20.39 sec, 21.57 sec, 21.21
sec, and 19.64 sec. The experimenter assumes that the reason why the
stimulus word darkness earns the highest mean score is that the word
does not require anything personal, such as the word can be associated
with color, night, movies, objects, etc. compared to the stimulus word
feelings that earn the lowest mean scores maybe because the words that
can be related to it is too personal. Maybe participants are only cautious
on this part because they don't want to say something related to them that
the experimenter can presume.
Appendix A
Informed Consent
Appendix 2
Printed Stimulus Word