The test-retest reliability of free association norms

Abstract

146 Ss gave free associations to 158 stimulus words on two occasions separated by 10 weeks. The probability of responding with an identical associate (IA) after 10 weeks was.32. A correlation of.84 was found between number of Primary (P) responses and number of IAs for the 146 Ss. A high positive correlation was found between dominance of the Primary (DP) and number of IAs for the 158 words, while a negative correlation was found between frequency in the language of the stimulus word (LF) and number of IAs. The coefficient of multiple correlation yielded R1.23=.92, indicating that a high degree of reliability can be predicted for words with low LF and high DP. © 1967, Psychonomic Press. All rights reserved.