A Review on Free Association: Methods, Theories, and Applications in Psychology

The free association method is used to identify other words to which a word is semantically related. Free association, which has been used for various purposes in the field of psychology for many years, plays an important role in scientific research on the mind by helping to model the associational structure of words. In this review, the free association method, related theories and the research areas in which it is applied are discussed with a focus on relatively new ones. Starting from its historical development, experimental methods, free association norms and the reliability and validity of these norms, organization of semantic memory and explanation of semantic networks from the Graph Theory perspective are mentioned. In addition, various studies in international and national literature using free association and its application areas in psychology are also discussed. Free association is used in the fields of cognitive psychology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience as well as in group and cultural comparison studies. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of free association method together with our suggestions about future studies are discussed. This review is thought to be an important resource for scholars who study semantic memory and word associations