A new perspective on word association: how keystroke logging informs strength of word association

For many years, word association (WA) data has informed theories of the mental lexicon by analyzing the words elicited. However, findings are inconsistent and WA research is still waiting for ‘a breakthrough in methodology which can unlock its undoubted potential’ (Schmitt 2010. Researching vocabulary: A vocabulary research manual. Palgrave Macmillan, 248). In this paper, we offer a new perspective on WA by using keystroke logging (Inputlog, Leijten & Van Waes 2013. Keystroke logging in writing research: Using Inputlog to analyze and visualize writing processes. Written Communication 30(3). 358–92. Online: www.inputlog.net/description.html) to captures the processes of word production. More specifically, we analyze pause behavior during a continued, typed, word association task with 30 cue words eliciting 4 responses, per cue, to evaluate the strength of links in lexical selection processes. We show a strong positive correlation between pause length and inter-response location, providing empirical evidenc...