What is preexisting strength? Predicting free association probabilities, similarity ratings, and cued recall probabilities

@article{citeulike:2132812, abstract = {Measuring lexical knowledge poses a challenge to the study of the influence of preexisting knowledge on the retrieval of new memories. Many tasks focus on word pairs, but words are embedded in associative networks, so how should preexisting pair strength be measured? It has been measured by free association, similarity ratings, and co-occurrence statistics. Researchers interpret free association response probabilities as unbiased estimates of forward cue-to-target strength. In Study 1, analyses of large free association and extralist cued recall databases indicate that this interpretation is incorrect. Competitor and backward strengths bias free association probabilities, and as with other recall tasks, preexisting strength is described by a ratio rule. In Study 2, associative similarity ratings are predicted by forward and backward, but not by competitor, strength. Preexisting strength is not a unitary construct, because its measurement varies with method. Furthermore, free association probabilities predict extralist cued recall better than do ratings and co-occurrence statistics. The measure that most closely matches the criterion task may provide the best estimate of the identity of preexisting strength.}, author = {Nelson, Douglas L. }, citeulike-article-id = {2132812}, keywords = {word-association}, month = {August}, pages = {711--719}, posted-at = {2007-12-16 16:46:47}, priority = {2}, title = {What is preexisting strength? Predicting free association probabilities, similarity ratings, and cued recall probabilities}, url = {http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/psocpubs/pbr/2005/00000012/00000004/art00013} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2132812 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2132812 TI - What is preexisting strength? Predicting free association probabilities, similarity ratings, and cued recall probabilities SP - 711 EP - 719 N2 - Measuring lexical knowledge poses a challenge to the study of the influence of preexisting knowledge on the retrieval of new memories. Many tasks focus on word pairs, but words are embedded in associative networks, so how should preexisting pair strength be measured? It has been measured by free association, similarity ratings, and co-occurrence statistics. Researchers interpret free association response probabilities as unbiased estimates of forward cue-to-target strength. In Study 1, analyses of large free association and extralist cued recall databases indicate that this interpretation is incorrect. Competitor and backward strengths bias free association probabilities, and as with other recall tasks, preexisting strength is described by a ratio rule. In Study 2, associative similarity ratings are predicted by forward and backward, but not by competitor, strength. Preexisting strength is not a unitary construct, because its measurement varies with method. Furthermore, free association probabilities predict extralist cued recall better than do ratings and co-occurrence statistics. The measure that most closely matches the criterion task may provide the best estimate of the identity of preexisting strength. KW - word-association AU - Nelson, Douglas UR - http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/psocpubs/pbr/2005/00000012/00000004/art00013 ER -