Prediction of Free Word Associations Based on Hebbian Learning 1

{An associative lexical net is built up whose weights are computed on the basis of the co-occurrences of words using Hebb's rule. The co-occurrences of word pairs are determined by shifting a window over a large body of text. To estimate the associative response to a given stimulus word the corresponding node is activated and its activity is propagated in the net. Our model assumes that words with high activities after propagation correspond to the associative responses of human subjects. These predictions have been tested and connrmed using the association norms collected by Russel & Jenkins from college students.