Structural Comparison of Cognitive Associative Networks in Two Populations

The cognitive associative structure of two populations was studied using network analysis of free-word associations. Structural differences in the associative networks were compared using measures of network centralization, size, density and path length. These measures are closely aligned with cognitive theories describing the organization of knowledge and retrieval of concepts from memory. Size and centralization of semantic structures were larger for college students than for seventh graders, while density, clustering and average path-length were similar. Findings presented reveal that subpopulations might have very different cognitive associative networks. This study suggests that graph theory and network analysis methods are useful in mapping differences in associative structures across groups. Contact: Kate Coronges Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, USC 1000 S Fremont Ave, Unit 8, Alhambra CA 91803 Phone: 323-356-4492 Fax: 626-457-6699 Email: [email protected]